


IT 2017 AU

by Equallady



Category: IT (2017), IT - Stephen King
Genre: AU, F/M, Fix-It of Sorts, Gen, Georgie Survives, Losers Gain Different Powers, Losers Meet A Lot Earlier, M/M, Multi, October 1988 to September 1989, Other, Pennywise Exposed To Derry, Psychic Abilities, Somebody Lives/Not Everyone Dies, Turtle More Proactive In Helping The Losers, What-If, magical powers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-21
Updated: 2018-10-29
Packaged: 2019-01-03 19:11:14
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 16
Words: 42,374
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12153000
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Equallady/pseuds/Equallady
Summary: What if Georgie managed to survive his encounter with Pennywise? What if IT's existence was brought to light to the people of Derry? What if the Losers Club form together way before the summer of 1989? What if the Turtle took a more proactive role in protecting the people of Derry? Bill&Georgie, RichiexEddie, BenxBeverly, BillxBeverly, Losers Club vs Bowers Gang, and Turtle vs IT.





	1. Bill and Georgie

**October 1, 1988**

"TAKE IT, GEORGIE." The clown in the storm drain growled as he held the paper boat up.

Georgie Denbrough shuddered inwardly at the scary change of tone in the clown's voice. The blue eyes of the clown were not enough to lure him in a false sense of security. The boy in the yellow raincoat wanted to badly get away from the clown as fast as possible, but he didn't want his older brother to be mad at him for losing the boat. So Georgie chose to get his boat back from the clown and run home as fast as he can.

Georgie carefully crawled on all fours to grab the boat that was in the clown's hand. But the clown held it out of his reach, intending to draw the poor boy closer to IT. Georgie thought he saw the clown's eyes change back to a glowing, sinister yellow but Georgie kept his focus on his boat. Georgie stuck his tongue out a bit and reached for his boat as far as he could.

Georgie quickly managed to snatch the boat back from the clown, but the clown changed. The clown threw ITs head back and revealed rows of razor-sharp teeth. Georgie jerked his arm out before the clown could bite his arm off. Georgie stared in horror as the clown-no-MONSTER stared at the boy in a predatory manner and spoke in a distinctly monstrous voice. "wE AlL flOAt dOwN HeRe, GeORGie. AnD wHen yOU'rE DoWn HeRe wITh mE, YOU'LL FLOAT TOO!"

The creature grabbed at Georgie with IT's now-clawed hand but Georgie managed to back away in time. However, the creature managed to scratch Georgie on the same arm that he used to reach for the boat. Georgie let out a deep cry of pain as the claws dug down his skin. His raincoat sleeve was now shredded and his blood was leaking out of the big, ugly wounds. Some of Georgie's blood splattered on S.S. Georgie and the rest of his blood leaked down onto the rainy road and into the storm drain.

Georgie quickly got up on his feet and RAN as fast as his legs can carry him. His uninjured hand clutching his boat and also his injured arm. Georgie screamed for the first words he could think of while running from the hungry monster. "HELP! HELP! HELP! HELP ME! PLEASE! SOMEONE HELP ME!" Georgie looked straight ahead as his galoshes rapidly splashed through the rain as he continued to desperately cry out for help.

The monster shapeshifted ITself out of the storm drain like IT was made out of rubber and ran after the injured child. IT had just awoken from another 27 years and IT's potential first meal was already running away. The monster growled in fury and hunger as IT chased after Georgie. IT's stomach was already rumbling at the smell of Georgie's FEAR and the taste of Geogie's fear-coated blood on IT's claws.

The cat and the old lady closest to that same storm drain went outside to see the poor boy running and yelling wildly for help. But they couldn't see or hear what the boy was running from, they only saw huge splashes made behind the boy. Both of them didn't care and went back inside their house like nothing was happening.

Georgie's bleeding arm throbbed with his pounding heartbeat as he continued to run from whatever IT was chasing him. The splashing footsteps and growls grew louder as the monster gained on poor Georgie. More adrenaline rushed through the boy's veins as he tried to run faster, trying to ignore the throbbing pain on his wounded right arm.

Luckily, one adult heard Georgie's frantic screams outside and quickly ran out of the house without his rain gear on. Dave Gardener ran up to Georgie and grabbed the poor boy into his arms. "It's okay, it's okay. Sh-sh-sh, I'm here." Dave rubbed the 6-year-old's back comfortably. The boy's right arm was clearly bleeding and his face was full of frightened tears. Dave guided the poor boy into his house as he looked behind him to see if anything was there.

Faraway from Dave's view, he thought he saw a clown slither back into the storm drain.

Although Dave was soaking wet from not wearing his rain gear, his attention mainly focused on the frightened boy clutching his boat. A pattering of footsteps were heard as Dave's son, Harold Gardener arrived down the stairs.

Georgie was still crying as he clutched his boat in his arms and sobbed uncontrollably on their sofa. Harold saw that Georgie's arm was still bleeding from the wounds and ran in to help. Dave Gardener quickly ran to the kitchen and got the first-aid kit. He opened the box, got the cotton pads, soaked them in rubbing alcohol and disinfected Georgie's wounds.

Georgie winced in pain as the rubbing alcohol left burning touches in the large, bleeding scratches. Dave then wrapped Georgie's injured arm in bandage wraps before securing with medical tape.

"Harold, call 911! He needs to get to the hospital right away!"

The young five-year-old nodded to his father and dialed 911 right away on their home phone.

Dave cradled Georgie's bandaged arm gingerly in his hands as he soothed the still-shocked child. "Don't worry, everything's gonna be just fine. You're safe now, the ambulance will come pick you up and send you to the hospital. They'll fix up your wounds and then send you back home, okay?"

Georgie nodded while he continued to sob quietly.

The other neighbors were alerted too from Georgie's frantic screams and went outside to see what was going on.

The Denbroughs were the most frightened amongst them when they heard Georgie's screams through the receding storm. His parents hurried outside into the rain as they looked and called out frantically for Georgie. Georgie's older brother, Bill also ran out into the streets despite his parents' protests to stay inside as he called out for Georgie.

Few minutes later, the ambulance came up to Dave Gardener's house with a loud siren and flashing red-and-blue lights. Dave came outside his house with Georgie under an umbrella and escorted the boy to the paramedics.

When the Denbroughs saw Georgie, they worriedly ran to him and asked Dave what happened. "What happened to Georgie?!" "Is he okay?!" "I-I-I-I-S H-H-H-E H-HURT?!"

"Georgie has been scratched deep by someone or...some thing. He needs to get stitched up before he bleeds more." Dave replied.

One of the paramedics walked up to the Denbroughs and asked, "Are you the patient's relatives?"

"Yes, absolutely." Georgie's mother said. "I'm his mom, this man here is my husband, and this boy here is our other son."

The paramedics let the whole family into the ambulance before closing the door. Georgie grabbed onto Bill's arm as they sat next to each other. Georgie was still crying from his near-death experience with the monster-clown. Bill stroked Georgie's head as his little brother clung onto his shirt and wept.

"Georgie, w-w-w-what h-h-h-happened b-b-b-b-back th-th-th-there?" Bill asked him.

"I almost lost her, Billy." Georgie whispered to him. "I almost lost our boat in the sewer."

"H-h-how d-d-did y-y-y-y-ou g-g-get h-h-her out?" Bill asked as he continued to stroke his brother's head consolingly.

Georgie sobbed more before answering ominously, "A clown."

"A-A-A-A cl-cl-cl-clown?!"

"A clown was in the sewer, he somehow knew my name. He even had our boat in his hand."

"A-A-A-A cl-cl-cl-cl-clown i-i-i-i-in th-th-th-the sew-sew-sew-sewer?! Georgie! Wh-wh-wh-why di-di-di-di-di-didn't y-y-y-you r-r-r-r-r-r-run?!"

"I didn't want you to kill me, Bill! You were sick and I didn't want to lose the boat you worked so hard to make! And...his eyes...he looked like yours' and mom's, Bill. He TRICKED me."

Bill sighed and continued to stroke Georgie. He couldn't blame Georgie for trusting a stranger hanging out in a sewer, he was only 6-years-old after all. Kids that age couldn't make rational decisions by themselves without adult supervision. Plus, Georgie was already suspicious of the stranger and only tried to get his boat back so he wouldn't upset Bill.

"He tried to eat me, Bill. Now I understand why he drooled when he saw me. He was trying to EAT ME." Georgie sobbed into Bill's shirt.

Bill's eyes flew open when he heard that the perpetrator TRIED TO EAT his own little brother.

"His mouth was so big and he had rows of sharp teeth. He tried to bite my arm off."

Bill's fears rose higher when he heard about the unnaturally mouth and excessive amount of sharp teeth the clown had.

"He tried to grab me, but I backed away in time. He managed to scratch my arm before I ran away from him His glove was ripped off and he had claws underneath."

Bill's blood pressure surged through the roof as he tried to process the clown that almost killed and ATE his brother.

"A-a-a-a-a cl-cl-cl-clown wi-with a-a-a-a-a l-l-large m-m-m-mouth f-f-f-f-full of ra-ra-ra-ra-razor sh-sh-sh-sharp t-t-t-t-teeth a-a-a-a-and cl-cl-claws?!"

"Yeah, it was horrible! I was ALMOST EATEN ALIVE! I should have caught up to the boat before she fell into the sewer! I'M SO SORRY, BILLY!" Georgie sobbed harder into his brother's shirt.

"N-n-n-n-no, Georgie. I-i-i-it w-w-wasn't y-y-y-your f-f-f-fault. I-I-I-I-I c-c-c-c-c-could al-al-al-al-always ma-ma-make a n-new one f-f-f-for you. J-j-j-j-j-ust d-d-d-d-don't go n-n-n-near the s-s-s-s-sewers a-a-a-g-g-g-gain, okay?"

"Okay Bill, I promise!"

When they all arrived at the Derry Hospital, Georgie's wounds were stitched up by the medical staff and then sent to a nearby ward to rest.

The police then asked Georgie what the perpetrator looked like. They gave Georgie a small box of crayons and a piece of paper to draw on.

Georgie had to use his left hand to draw since his right arm was just stitched up. Georgie couldn't see much of the clown since it was dark inside the storm drain.

He drew a big bald head with orange tufts of hair on both sides. He put in yellow dots on the face as eyes and a red mouth with razor sharp teeth drawn on top of it in black crayon. He also drew a large ruffled collar around the clown's head and brown clawed hands.

The police stared at Georgie's drawing for a minute and then asked him, "Is this the one who attacked you?"

"Mm-hm." Georgie quietly nodded.

The police officer swore under his breath in disbelief as he put the drawing into a manila folder.

The police warned the Denbroughs not to let Georgie wander off by himself at ANY TIME. The police then issued a search for the clown with orange hair and yellow eyes throughout Derry, including the sewers. The police had labelled the sewers off-limits and closed off the house on Neibolt Street. The police even issued a 7 pm curfew for all of the residents of Derry and that no child shall be left alone without a "trusted adult."

The Denbroughs thanked the police for their help before most of them left to search for the clown.

"A-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-achoo!" Bill sneezed loudly, alerting the people the people in the room.

Bill felt cold all of a sudden and was shaking uncontrollably. Bill fell to the floor, his strength to stand on his feet leaving him.

"BILLY!" Georgie screamed as Bill collapsed onto the ground, hard.

The medical staff ran to him to make sure he was okay. Bill convulsed and vomited onto the floor. Everything was a blur for Bill as the medical staff wiped his mouth clean of the vomit and placed on a bed right next to Georgie's.

Their parents were panicking as Bill suffered a huge coughing fit. "WILLIAM!"

One of the nurses felt Bill's forehead and found out he was burning up. "Get me an ice pack!"

One of the other nurses ran out of the ward to get an ice pack while others tried to stabilize Bill's temperature to the best of their ability.

Georgie and their parents kept panicking as Bill kept trembling due to chills from his high fever.

"William! That's why we told you TO STAY INSIDE! YOU'RE IN NO CONDITION TO GO OUT!" Bill and Georgie's father roared at him.

Bill groaned in his bed as he felt himself getting colder and colder.

A nurse shoved a thermometer in Bill's mouth as the other nurse came back with a few ice packs. And ice pack was placed directly on Bill's sweaty forehead while the other two were shoved in Bill's underarms.

"His temperature is still too high! Get me more ice!" Another nurse shouted.

The same nurse who got the ice packs ran back to get some more.

Georgie continued to watch with horror as Bill wriggled around uncontrollably in his bed while the nurses struggled to keep his temperature down. Georgie started to cry again when he considered the whole situation to be his fault. Georgie felt really guilty for waking Bill when he was sleeping just to make the boat for him. Even worse was that he didn't tell his parents he was going outside to play with his boat. He also went too far from their house and hit his head on one of the sawhorses, which caused him to lose his boat into the drain.

If Georgie never woken his brother up to make a boat for him and go outside by himself, Georgie would've never gotten injured by the clown, his family wouldn't have been so worried sick about him dying, and Bill would've not gotten a life-threatening fever.

One of the nurses escorted the rest of the family out of the room so they could sit outside and wait for Bill to heal.

Both Zack and Sharon argued with each other in the hall while Georgie sat quietly and cradled the boat in his hands. His parents were distraught that both of their sons have almost been killed in one day because of various reasons. They argued about whether keeping watch of Georgie and Bill was each other's responsibility. They fought and they fought for what seemed like a long time.

Georgie cried to himself as he watched his parents continue to fight and peeked into the door to see that Bill was doing well, but was sedated minutes ago. Looking back at his parents, Georgie carefully crept back into the room to see Bill.

Bill still had an ice pack rested on top of his forehead and he was covered by a warm blanket. He was lying still with his eyes closed and his breathing stable. His face was a tad less sweaty and pale when he was suffering from a fever. Bill's expression was somewhat calm, but there was lines of uneasiness written on his features.

"G-G-G-G-G-eorgie...No!" Bill half-whispered and half-yelled in his sleep.

Georgie saw that Bill was having a nightmare about him and climbed onto the bed.

He tuned out the sounds of their parents' arguments as he laid down right next to his brother's sleeping body.

Georgie buried his head in Bill's shoulder as he fell asleep with the boat resting between their heads.


	2. Bill and Georgie

**October 1, 1988**

_Georgie reached in for the boat in the drain and the clown revealed his fangs. The clown chomped down on Georgie's arm, biting his arm clean off. Georgie screamed in agony as he broke away from the storm drain and bled profusely from where his right arm used to be. Georgie cried helplessly as he crawled away from the clown as fast as he could with his remaining limbs. But the clown managed to stretch his arm out of the sewer to grab the poor boy. Georgie yelled his final word as he was pulled into the drain by the monster, "BILLLLLLYYYYYYYYYY!" And there was silence..._

_"G-G-G-G-G-eorgie...No!" Bill half-screamed in his sleep._

_His heart broke into pieces as he saw the monster kill his little brother. Bill felt that a part of him has been destroyed when he experienced that nightmare._

_Bill sobbed in his sleep as he experienced his parents neglecting him because of Georgie's death in his bad dream. Bill knew deep down without Georgie, their family could never be whole again._

_He cried more and more as he was shown more of what would happen if Georgie was killed by that monster-clown. He felt more useless and worthless as he was trapped in that horrifying and heartwrenching nightmare._

_Bill was about to drowned in the dark, muddy depths of the sewers before he was suddenly transported somewhere else._

_Bill woke up in his bedroom._

_It was no longer raining, the sun shined bright through the window with no clouds in the sky. His room did not smell of rotting corpses like in the sewers. It smelt of fresh cotton and of autumn leaves._

_As Bill tried to make sense of the situation, he felt a small warm body nestle against him._

_Bill looked down and his heart lifted when he saw his brother sleeping peacefully beside him._

_Georgie wore the same pyjamas before he left the house and got attacked. He was holding the boat Bill made for him like a teddy bear as he slept._

_But his right arm was still missing, it was just a bloody stump from where his arm was bitten off._

_Bill stared at the stump before reaching out to touch it. His fingers gently caressed the stump as he looked at Georgie's sleeping face._

_Bill thought about the happy times he and Georgie shared together. The time when his parents announced to Bill that they were having a baby, he felt so excited to have a sibling. He recalled the time when he laid his hand on his mom's belly and felt the baby move. He even remembered putting his ear to his mom's belly while she slept, he heard the baby's heartbeat for the first time. Bill recalle_ _d hearing the baby's first cries after he was born and the feel of the baby in his arms._

_That baby...was Georgie._

_Before Bill realized what was happening, the stump was growing. The skin, bones, and everything underneath were regenerating rapidly. The ripped off sleeve of Georgie's pajama top was repairing itself with the arm too._

_While all of that happened, Bill felt as if his body was becoming warmer and lighter. His hands felt like they were glowing and his fingertips were tingling. It was a weird sensation Bill never felt before, but it made him feel happy inside._

_Bill watched with wonder as Georgie's fingers came next, growing like branches on a tree. After Georgie's fingernails and fingertips grew back, Bill cautiously took the regrown limb and caressed it._

_Bill then felt the new limb for a pulse to see if the arm was well connected to the rest of Georgie's body._

_It was a miracle! Bill happily rejoiced to himself as he hugged his newly-healed brother. His heart leaping with joy as he slept peacefully next to Georgie._

Unbeknownst to everyone else in the hospital, Georgie's wounds were healing rapidly as Bill unconsciously touched Georgie's injured arm.

Even though Georgie didn't know that his wounds were healing faster than they should be, he felt extreme warmth from his brother rush through him. Georgie instinctly reached onto that warmth and found it immensely comforting to him. His psychological wounds from his encounter with the clown healed too.

Georgie smiled brightly as he continued to latch onto his brother.

The doctors and nurses let the two brothers both be as they continued tending to other patients.

* * *

When Bill woke up from his dream, he found himself in a hospital bed. Everything was a blur when he suffered a fever attack. He felt a familiar small body cling onto him and he looked to his side to find Georgie sleeping peacefully next to him.

Georgie was smiling and was clearly intent on not letting him go. The boat Bill built for Georgie was resting between their heads.

Bill stared at Georgie's bandaged arm before touching it with his fingers. He couldn't feel that buzzing warmth again like he did in his dream. He felt that warmth again, but it was faint.

He sat up from his bed and snatched a tissue before blowing into it. He tossed the snot-covered ball of tissue into a nearby wastebasket.

Bill covered his mouth with another tissue as he coughed into it.

He felt slightly better but his muscles still ached a bit, his nose congested, and his throat sore.

The staff were moving around the hospital and tending to the patients as always.

Bill carefully carried Georgie and his boat against his chest as he walked outside the room to see his parents.

His parents were sitting a couple seats from each other, asleep. Their tear-ridden faces suggested that they had been crying for hours non-stop. The way they were sitting apart from each other also suggested that they have argued angrily over something.

Bill's eyes went watery again as he saw the clear rift between his mother and father. His parents were never this separate before Georgie almost got killed. They were altogether a happy family for 6 years and now...it was doubtful they would ever be a happy family again.

Bill sat Georgie down next to their mother and put the boat onto his brother's lap. Bill sat between his father and his brother. The hall was dark and the sound of rain and thunder boomed outside. The storm from earlier came back and was more unrelenting than before.

Bill checked the analog clock that hung on the wall in the dark. It was 8:10 PM. It was already past curfew. The whole family would have to stay inside the hospital till morning, no exceptions.

Bill felt sleepiness waft over him again as fell asleep against his brother, Georgie for the second time.

* * *

**October 2, 1988**

"Bill?" Bill felt a tiny finger prodding his cheek. "Bill, wake up." A small hand on his shoulder shook him. "Biilllllllll." A familiar voice echoed into one of his ears.

"M-m-m-m-m-mhmm..." Bill struggled to open his eyes has he saw the familiar face of his brother, Georgie.

"Mom and dad says we're going home." Georgie told him.

Bill finally woke up as he sat up in his chair, stretched his arms, and yawned loudly.

"Ar-ar-are y-y-you fee-fee-feeling al-alright, Georgie?" Bill asked him blearily.

"Uh-huh, I feel a lot better now. My arm doesn't hurt anymore." Georgie happily replied.

"Th-th-th-that's gr-gr-great to h-h-hear." Bill smiled, relieved as he yawned again.

"H-h-how's sh-sh-sh-she doing?" Bill gestured to the paper boat in Georgie's uninjured hand.

"She's fine. I haven't had the chance to try her again so far, I've just woken up." Georgie answered.

"W-w-w-we c-c-c-can te-te-te-test h-h-her once w-w-we g-get ba-ba-ba-back ho-ho-home. B-b-but no more rid-rid-rid-riding her in the str-str-streets. W-w-we don't want h-h-her falling into the sew-sew-sew-sew-sew-sewers again." Bill warned Georgie with a worried look on his face.

"Okay, Billy! I promise! I won't ride her onto the streets ever again!" Georgie chirped reassuringly to his brother.

"G-g-g-good! And d-d-don't go out-out-out-outside w-w-w-w-without me, mom, or-or-or dad!"

"Yes, Billy! I won't go by myself from now on, I promise!" Georgie hugged his brother tightly.

Bill hugged his brother back happily as revelled in how happy Georgie was.

But unexpectedly, the atmosphere in the hall rapidly went from cheerful, loving, and warm to somber, hateful, and cold.

As Bill stared past Georgie's shoulder while still embracing him, Bill saw something that shook him down to his core.

There was a man standing in the hallway. His fists was clenched tightly and his legs were slightly apart. On his ID name tag attached to his shirt was his name "Robert "Bob" Gray." The man wore the Derry Hospital uniform like the other hospital staff but it was covered in blood and entrails. The man was darkly glaring at Bill as he continued to stand there in the hallway. His facial expression was vengeful, murderous, and belligerent.

What even was more scarier was that the rest of the Derry Hospital staff passed by the man as if HE DIDN'T EVEN EXIST!

Bill's breathing and heart rate quickly rose as he continued to stare in horror at the mysterious man standing a few feet away from him.

The man sensed his apparent FEAR and his eyes became a glowing yellow like how Georgie described the clown. The man smiled a creepy smile with his long, sharp teeth showing for Bill to see. Drool fell down the man's mouth as Bill continued to look on in sheer fright.

The man, Robert Gray was more pleased to see the brother of one of his escaped victims being DEATHLY AFRAID of him. He felt utterly satisfied watching Bill shake in fear as he hugged his brother closely to him.

Robert was UTTERLY FURIOUS when the child named Georgie managed to escape his grasp and run safely to an adult. He had just woken up from another 27-year hibernation and was already STARVING. He roamed around the Derry sewers for any kids unlucky enough to run into him until he smelled a lone child near him.

Robert catched the paper boat before it floated away deeper into the sewer and tried to entice the child with it. He took the form of his favorite persona, "Pennywise The Dancing Clown" in order to lure the child into a false sense of security before consuming him. But unfortunately for him, the child saw through his illusions and snatched the boat away before Robert could chomp down on him. The child managed to run away from him to safety and he was left EVEN MORE STARVING THAN BEFORE!

Even worse was that Georgie managed to reveal Robert's existence to the police and in turn, THE ENTIRE TOWN OF DERRY! He had to constantly be out of the sewers so that the police wouldn't find him and apprehend him. To have his existence exposed, being out of his lifelong home, chased around by people who didn't believe in him before, and starving due to long periods of eating little made him DEEPLY ENRAGED for the first time in his life.

He had to stay alive by scaring and eating the very few policemen who were stupid enough go alone by themselves. The policemen were hard to scare since they were adults and trained to handle dangerous situations. Scaring them was like trying to scare a lion roaming out in the wild. He suffered gunshots to the head and taser shocks to the chest but it only served to weaken him rather than hurt him. When he finally managed to kill them, they tasted rather bland compared to the children he scared and eaten before.

Robert decided to target the child that made his life turn sour in revenge for his current situation. He wanted to make Georgie suffer for his current predicament. He even wanted to kill his big brother, Bill to add more salt to Georgie's wound. How he yearned to see these two cry in fear and dread as he walked towards them. How he yearned to taste their fear-covered flesh and salty tears as he prepared to eat them. Vengeance was sweet.

The heavy smell of Bill's fears was almost too much for the monster to handle, but he knew that he would take them if they were ALONE. He would attract the attention of the hospital staff and alert the police of his current location if he took the two brothers. So Robert turned around to walk away and disappear from Bill's sight while sinisterly smiling back at him.

Bill struggled to breathe as he watched the scary man walk away.

"What's wrong, Billy?" Georgie sensed Bill's distress and looked up at him with worried eyes.

"N-n-n-n-n-nothing, Georgie." Bill lied so that Georgie wouldn't be afraid again. "L-l-l-l-l-l-let's go see mo-mo-mom and da-da-dad."

Bill led Georgie down the hall by the hand protectively and called out for their parents.

The staff told them that their parents were in the lobby and escorted them down the elevator.

When Bill and Georgie came out of the elevator, their parents were at the checkout desk. They had just signed themselves out of the hospital.

The parents had to gather their sons together and walk all the way back home. Zack and Sharon Denbrough hardly spoke a word to each other. Bill kept holding Georgie's hand while keeping an eye out for anything suspicious.

So far, so good. There was no sight of the creepy man in the hospital or the orange-haired clown. The weather was chilly and it was partly cloudy. Bill kept sniffling as his nose continued to get stuffy.

The Denbroughs stopped at a nearby diner to eat breakfast. The clock read 6:30 AM and the diner just opened so there was not much customers there.

Bill was not allowed to eat dairy or egg products because of his flu. Bill decided on a glass of orange juice and a bowl of oatmeal with sliced bananas, sliced apples, and blueberries on top.

Zack and Sharon drank coffee, ate French toast, and fried sausages. Georgie drank milk, ate a sunny-side-up, and tater tots.

Bill kept careful watch out of the glass and inside the diner the whole time. He didn't want ANYONE coming after his little brother again, almost losing Georgie to that sewer clown was traumatic enough.

Everyone else inside the diner, including his parents did not notice the obvious worried expression on Bill's face. So far, the only people who noticed Bill's concern was Georgie and a mysterious old man with a long gray beard sitting across from their table.

The old man had green eyes that glowed a bit. He was wearing a forest-green button-up dress shirt and black slacks under a dark teal coat.

Unlike the malevolent and purely evil aura Bill felt from the creepy man at the Derry Hospital, Bill felt that the old man's aura was benevolent and purely good.

The old man smiled at him and Bill felt that same warmth he experienced before in his dream.

No one seemed to notice the old man, only Bill and Georgie did.

Bill thought he was going crazy. He shook his head as he tried to make sense of the bizarre events he saw so far: Georgie was almost eaten by a clown in the sewer, Bill saw a creepy man in the hospital with glowing yellow eyes, and then he was now seeing an old man with glowing green eyes.

As Bill tried harder to make sense of the situation, he tripped on one of the table legs and accidentally pushed his glass of orange juice off the table. Bill watched with horror as the glass landed on the floor with a loud crack. Before he knew it Bill was already on his knees picking up the broken pieces of glass while cutting himself on them.


	3. Bill and Georgie

**October 2, 1988**

"BILLY!" Georgie screamed as Bill continued to pick up the broken pieces of the glass cup.

The staff in the diner were alerted as they ran over to where broken glass was. A waiter got a broom and a dustpan while a waitress shooed Bill's hands away from the remaining glass shards on the floor. Bill dropped the other glass shards onto the dustpan as the waiters cleaned up the mess.

Zack and Sharon grabbed frantically at Bill's cut hands as they continued to bleed.

"I-I'm f-f-fine! It's j-j-just a f-f-f-few c-c-c-cuts!" Bill protested as his parents fussed over Bill's wounds.

Both Bill's and Georgie's parents were not having a great day. Both of their sons have been through a lot of trouble and it wasn't contributing well to their mental health.

His parents didn't believe him and felt Bill's forehead for his fever. His temperature was normal, but it still didn't stop them from worrying.

"Just a few cuts?! You've still got the flu and you gotten a high fever from going outside while it's raining!" His father scolded him.

"L-l-l-look dad! I'm f-f-f-f-f-fine! I-i-i-i-it's just a f-f-f-few sm-sm-sm-small c-c-cuts th-th-th-th-that's all!" Bill protested again.

"You're going to get even more sick if we don't disinfect your hands right away!" His mother told him as she got a napkin and dabbed at the wounds.

Bill was so caught up in trying to find the right words to retort back to his parents that he almost ignored that familiar warm sensation again. The warm sensation was pouring from somewhere in his body and into his hands and fingers like in his dream.

He felt his small cuts stitch themselves together when that warm energy reached those areas. When his parents finished wiping most of the blood away from his hands, they were surprised to see that the wounds have miraculously disappeared.

Bill took his hands back from his parents and examined his palms very carefully. There were no open wounds in sight, he couldn't even find the tiniest open cut on either of his hands.

He put his hands and rubbed them together. "S-s-s-see? J-j-just sm-sm-small cuts!"

His parents looked at each other and then back at Bill. "Don't scare us like that again! We're going home right now!" His father told him as he threw out a couple of $20 bills onto the table.

"We can finish our breakfast at home." Zack said to the whole family. "We would like to take our breakfast home please!" He yelled to the nearby waiters.

After the whole family packed up their breakfast leftovers, they headed straight out of the diner.

But Bill glanced behind him to see if the mysterious man was still in the diner. The man was reaching into the trashcan and was pulling up something. The man was picking up the same pieces of glass from the cup Bill broke.

_But why?_ Bill thought to himself as he continued to watch the man grab the remaining pieces of glass in the trashbin.

The man looked at Bill with his glowing green eyes as if he heard Bill's thoughts.

Bill was taken aback by how those eyes seemed to stare into his psyche as he watched the man do something that made his heart stop.

The broken glass in the man's hands were assembling themselves into their original places! Again, no one seemed to notice but Bill and Georgie. The small bits of glass were fixing themselves in place as Bill and Georgie watched with wonder.

The cracks magically disappeared after all of the bits were fixed in place and the glass cup Bill broke was as good as new.

Bill and Georgie stood there with their mouths agape before their parents' voices snapped them out of their trance.

"WILLIAM!" "GEORGIE!" Their parents called out to them.

Bill and Georgie turned around and followed their parents behind back home.

The two brothers snuck a look behind them as the mysterious man stared back at them cryptically with the now-repaired glass cup in his hand.

* * *

When the Denbroughs were finally back home, they finished their breakfast in the dining room quietly. Not one of them spoke as they chewed and swallowed their food for the past half hour.

When they were all done eating, their father went out to work and their mother went to the piano. Bill retreated back to his bed since he was still sick and Georgie sat next to him.

Georgie was still fearful of being alone after his near-death experience with the clown, so he decided to stay in Bill's room instead of his room. Georgie also was afraid of going into the cellar again, now that he saw with his own eyes that monsters DO EXIST. He didn't want to risk himself getting eaten by the clown ever again.

Bill was still thinking about what he just saw back at the diner. The man with the glowing green eyes who fixed the glass cup in mere seconds stayed in Bill's mind for the past hour.

Georgie was sitting next to Bill uneasily. He also saw the man with the glowing green eyes in the diner. Georgie even saw how the man magically fixed the glass cup, piece by piece.

While Bill was busy blowing his nose into tissues and throwing them into the wastebasket, Georgie decided to break the silence by asking Bill, "Do you know who that man was in the diner?"

Bill sneezed into a tissue. "N-n-n-no, I ne-ne-never m-m-m-met h-h-him be-be-be-before. I-I-I d-d-don't ev-ev-even kn-know h-h-his na-name."

"Is he some kind of wizard?" Georgie asked curiously.

"I-I-I'm n-n-not sure." Bill replied before taking his dose of prescribed medicine. Bill wasn't sure what was happening so far. It seemed that a lot of weird things have been popping in Derry so far. The clown in the sewer who tried to eat Georgie, the sewer clown with fangs and claws, the 7 PM curfew, the creepy man glaring at him and Georgie in the hospital, the weird sensations Bill been having from time to time, and the green-eyed man who fixed the glass cup singlehandedly.

Bill's head hurt even more as he tried to comprehend the strange events. He closed his eyes and tried to sleep, but he found that he couldn't due to the fact he slept a lot yesterday.

Georgie nudged Bill's cheek with S.S. Georgie. "Can we see if she still works, Billy?"

Bill didn't see a reason why he shouldn't play with Georgie now. "S-s-s-sure, Geo-Geo-Georgie!"

"Hooray!" Georgie threw his arms around Bill with S.S. Georgie in his uninjured hand.

The brothers entered the bathroom with their towels and clean clothes. They unclothed themselves and then filled the bathtub with warm-hot water for them to bathe in. When the bathtub was full of water, Bill and Georgie stepped into the bathtub and put S.S. Georgie on the surface.

The boat was still perfectly intact and waterproof as the day before, but there was still Georgie's blood stained on the wax. The boat rode the small waves created by movement from the two brothers.

"She still works, Billy! She still works!" Georgie said excitedly.

"Y-y-yes, Georgie. Sh-sh-she still does!" Bill laughed amusedly.

They both took turns playing with S.S. Georgie in the tub as they bathed together. Bill washed Georgie's hair while Georgie splashed around in the bubbles.

Georgie's dried blood was already washing off the waterproofed boat as the brothers continued to fool around in the bathroom.

The brothers and S.S. Georgie were all squeaky clean by the time they came out of the bathroom. They both were refreshed and happy as the water on their skins soaked in.

"Th-th-th-the blood's all wa-wa-washed off!" Bill said happily as they trodded back to Bill's bedroom.

"She's good as new!" Georgie said as he waved the boat around while running in circles.

Bill laughed as he watched his little brother make ship sounds while he continued playing with the boat.

But while Georgie continued running around, his foot slipped on the rug and he fell on his face.

Bill stood up from his bed in alarm and crouched down beside Georgie. "GEORGIE?!"

Georgie lifted his head up from the floor and there were tears prickling in his eyes from the pain. His nose was bleeding and his forehead was bruising from the impact.

Georgie began to sob as the blood continued to run from his nose and trickled down his chin.

"Oh nonononononononono! Georgie!" Bill patted Georgie as he tried to console his little brother.

Bill grabbed a bunch of tissues and quickly pressed them to Georgie's nose as the poor boy sobbed.

There was Georgie's blood again on the paper boat and Bill wiped up the blood before it could stain.

"I-I-it's okay, it's o-o-okay Georgie." Bill whispered to Georgie as he continued pressing the tissues to his bleeding nose and rubbed circles on his back.

While Bill was focusing hard on stopping the bleeding, he felt that warm sensation again. The warmth buzzed through his arm and to Georgie's nose.

Georgie felt that warmth as it came, he felt his nose being repaired as it continued to spread. The blood vessels inside his nose was instantly repaired as the bleeding quickly stopped.

Bill jerked his hand away and then he stared at Georgie's nose in bemusement. "Wh-wh-wh-what just happened?"

Georgie touched his nose experimentally as Bill stared at his own hand. "You fixed my nose, Billy."

Bill continued to look at his shaking hand as it still felt warm for some reason. "B-b-b-b-but all I d-d-did was hold your n-n-n-n-nose, Georgie."

"I felt something coming from your hand and it healed my nose." Georgie told Bill innocently.

"Wh-wh-wh-what so-so-so-something?" Bill stuttered more as he grew more afraid and confused.

"I don't know, Bill. Whatever it was, it came from your hand. It felt like sunlight." Georgie truthfully told him.

Bill looked down at his still-warm hand as it still burned with some kind of energy. He first felt that energy while he slept with Georgie at the hospital. He dreamt that it flowed from his body into Georgie's missing right arm. He felt that energy again when he met the mysterious man at the diner earlier. And then the third time when Bill cut himself on the broken glass pieces.

Whatever that energy did, it fixed whatever was intended to be fixed. Bill deduced this by his dream of when Georgie's arm was mending by itself, when Bill cut himself and his wounds were gone in a flash, and when the green-eyed man fixed the broken glass cup in the diner.

Bill gathered his thoughts together and looked at the bruising spot on Georgie's forehead. It was an ugly mix of red, black, and blue as it continued to spread.

Bill slowly held up his still-energized hand and pressed his fingertips to the bruise. He felt his fingertips grow warm as the energy flowed from them to Georgie's forehead.

Georgie felt the comforting warmth as the broken blood vessels fixed themselves inside his forehead.

Bill looked with shock as the bruise rapidly disappeared from his brother's forehead and there was not one speck of red, black, or blue after that.

Georgie touched his forehead and found he felt no pain from said area. He smiled up at Bill as Bill looked on in amazement.

Bill wasn't sure what to say after seeing himself heal the bruise with his own eyes. He couldn't believe that he himself was doing it nor could he comprehend how he could do it.

While Bill was still contemplating on the issue of his newly-discovered restoring powers, Georgie had already started taking off his bandages.

Bill snapped out his thoughts to stop Georgie from ripping off the bandages on his right arm. "G-G-Georgie, don't!"

But Georgie already took the bandages off and what Bill saw shocked him to the core. All of Georgie's wounds were gone, replaced by scars. The stitches were still sewn into the skin where the wounds used to be though.

"I felt it from you while we were sleeping yesterday. That must have been why my arm doesn't hurt anymore, Billy." Georgie told him.

"I-I-I dr-dr-dreamt about re-re-re-regenerating your arm while we were sl-sl-sl-sleeping together. I ha-ha-happened to be touching yo-yo-your arm while we sl-sl-slept. Th-th-that must have been how your arm was fi-fi-fi-fi-fixed." Bill speculated.

Bill took the bandages from Georgie's other hand and wrapped the stitched arm in them.

"Ke-ke-ke-keep we-we-wearing th-the ba-ba-bandages, we can't have an-an-an-anyone finding out that yo-yo-your arm healed in j-j-j-just one d-d-d-day. D-d-don't strain your arm t-t-too much and pre-pre-pre-pretend your arm's still h-h-h-hurt. And do-do-don't let anyone else ch-ch-change your ba-ba-bandages! I-I-I'll do it for you! On-on-only me! Ok-k-k-k-kay?"

Georgie enthusiastically shook his head and beamed up at Bill. "Okay, Billy! I promise!"

The little boy then thought to himself for a moment and then ran to his bedroom to get something.

"Georgie, WAIT! Re-re-remember that we ha-ha-have to stick to-to-together!" Bill called out for his brother as he ran after him.

Georgie picked up his still-ripped raincoat and held it for Bill to see. The right arm of the raincoat had diagonal slashes from the day before. There was still some blood on the raincoat from Georgie's blood washed with rainwater on the lower front right.

Bill looked at the raincoat before he knew what Georgie wanted him to do with it.

"Y-y-y-y-you want me to fi-fi-fix your co-co-co-coat, Georgie?"

"Mm-hm!" Georgie nodded happily.

"Su-sure thing! B-b-b-b-but we gotta wash it fi-fi-first. I do-do-don't want my ha-ha-hands dir-dir-dirty while I fi-fi-fix your coat." Bill told him.

"Thanks, Billy!" Georgie said as he and Bill went back to the bathroom.

The blood wasn't hard to wash off since the raincoat was waterproof and the detergent dissolved all of the blood.

As the blood and the suds washed down the bathtub drain, Bill dried the raincoat with Georgie's towel thoroughly before turning his attention to the ripped sleeve.

Georgie watched closely as Bill rested the sleeve on both of his palms and concentrated.

Bill looked laser-sharp at the sleeve and imagined itself stitching back together. The same warm energy flowed through Bill once again as Bill concentrated hard on mending the sleeve. The warmth went down Bill's arms and into his palms as the sleeve stitched itself back together. The yellow threads of the coat aligning themselves as the rips disappeared all at once.

Georgie laughed delightfully when he saw Bill's hands glow a faint blue-green as Bill continued to mend the sleeve with effort.

When the sleeve was all fixed like new, Bill gave Georgie the raincoat back. "Th-there you go, all fixed!"

"Thanks, Billy! You're the best!" Georgie said as he threw both of his arms around Bill and then kissed his cheek.

Bill kissed him back on the forehead and continued hugging his brother.

It had been a stressful couple of days, but Georgie was safe and healthy in his arms and that was that mattered.


	4. Ben and Beverly

**October 2, 1988**

Ben was spending another day at the library. The library was his favorite place to visit since it had this quiet atmosphere and the smell of crisp pages. He spent most of his time reading on about the history of Derry and tying it to present day. Ben was not like most kids who played with their friends and chatted a lot. He preferred to read, read, read all by himself in a quiet room where no one could bother him.

His fascination with Derry's history and his obesity made him a constant target for bullying around other kids. But the kids who bullied him the most were the Bowers Gang, a group of delinquents made up of four people. And those people were: Henry BOWERS, Victor Criss, Belch Huggins, and Patrick Hockstetter. They even bullied other people too, not just Ben. They bullied pretty much anyone they wanted, even people of the opposite gender.

Ben felt himself get really angry as he recalled the time when the Bowers Gang picked on a beautiful girl with red hair. Her name was Beverly Marsh and she was his crush ever since he laid eyes on her. The bullies flirted with her by the lockers one day and Ben was there to see it. He felt furious when he saw one of them place his hand by her face and smirked at her suggestively. Another one of the boys groped her beautiful long, red hair and sniffed it shamelessly. But what ultimately set Ben off was when another one of the boys groped her small breasts. Before Ben could act however, Beverly kicked the boy hard in the groin and shoved the other boys off. Beverly stormed off into the girls' restroom as the Bowers Gang called her a "b*tch", "sl*t", "wh*re", "h**ker", "c**t", and other horrible things.

Ben wished that he could help Beverly at that time, but he was too shy to approach her. He always kept his distance from her whenever she was around. He would even sit a few seats away from her whenever they were in class together. Ben also knew what it was like to be an outcast at school like Beverly. She wasn't well-liked by the kids in their school either because of the fact she was poor and beautiful. The rich girls were jealous that Beverly was more prettier than them that they would make fun of her economic status and accuse her of prostitution. The nasty rumors that Beverly was a "sl*t" spread so much throughout the school that even the faculty believed them! As a result of Beverly's unwanted reputation, she never had ANY friends in her life.

Ben badly wanted to be her friend, but his fear of getting rejected by her was too strong. Ben shut the book close as he slammed his head against the cover. He felt like a coward for not attempting to approach her while he had the chance.

And speaking of which, he had that strange dream this morning of Beverly crying in her bathroom. She was showering and there was a shower curtain blocking Ben from seeing her naked body. Ben smelled Prell shampoo and conditioner as she continued showering. He heard the water stop running and saw Beverly's towel pulled down. Beverly pushed the shower curtain aside and Ben saw Beverly's wet, nude body for the first time ever. Ben snapped his eyes open and flustered on his bed having seen Beverly's private parts. He ran to the bathroom to splash cold water onto his face in order to chide himself for being a pervert.

But it wasn't Ben's fault, the dream just happened. Ben couldn't control what he was dreaming at the time. It wasn't because he was lusting to see Beverly's naked body. The dream just came up by itself. What Ben thought was peculiar about that dream was that he felt like he was in the dream himself. But at the same time, he wasn't in the dream. Ben couldn't see his body while he dreaming about Beverly having a shower. Ben could see the dream crystal-clear, he could even feel the steam from the shower, he could also smell what shampoo and conditioner Beverly was using at that time!

Even stranger was that Ben had the other same kind of visions/dreams today. This time, the vision occurred while he was AWAKE. It happened when Ben was searching for one of the library books that was due today. Ben searched as hard as he could inside the house because he forgot where he put his library book. During his search, Ben was struck by a vision of himself putting that library book all zipped up in his school bag a few days ago. After the vision ended, Ben went to that same school bag and unzipped it. And there was the library book he was searching for!

Ben managed to return the book without a word. He silently thanked that vision of the past for showing where he last put that library book. But it didn't stop there. While Ben was walking by a sewer grate on his way to the library, he was struck with another vision. This vision happened to be of a monstrous creature waking up from its sleep and roaming the sewers. Ben couldn't see what the creature looked like because of the darkness, but he could smell the stench of waste and dirty rainwater. He could also hear the sound of rain and the creature's growls echoing inside the sewers. Ben then saw the light coming from a sewer grate as the creature eagerly ran down that direction, sensing its potential prey.

Ben heard the sound of a little boy's "NOOOOOOO!" as Ben saw a paper boat fall into the sewer. Ben heard the boy lamenting, "Bill's gonna kill me!" as the boy looked hard into the darkness. To Ben's surprise, the creature transformed into something more humanoid. When it was done transforming, it opened its eyes at the boy. The boy jumped back in fright when the creature opened its eyes to him. The monster cheerfully greeted the boy, "Georgie" as it made itself visible to him. Ben could see from the outside light that the creature now had orange hair and a big white forehead. The creature also adopted a high-pitched, childish voice to fit its transformation. Ben looked with sheer worry as the creature held up the boy's boat to lure him in. The poor boy already looked pretty uncomfortable as he told the monster that he does want his boat back.

Ben watched the conversation between the monster and the boy go for a few minutes. Ben took note that the monster talked about giving the boy and his brother balloons. But Georgie said he wasn't "supposed to take stuff from strangers." The monster finally introduced itself as "Pennywise The Dancing Clown" while playfully shaking its little bells to make itself more trustworthy. But the boy wasn't buying into the act, he was already suspicious about what a clown was doing in the sewer. The monster delightfully told him that "a storm blew him and the whole circus away." It then caught Georgie off-guard by asking him if he could smell the circus. Weirdly enough, Ben smelled circus food even though there was none around. There were the smells of peanuts, cotton candy, hot dogs, and finally popcorn as the monster enthusiastically mentioned.

Both the monster and the boy laughed about popcorn until the monster growled in hunger. The boy looked scared and tried to leave right away. But the monster guilt-tripped the boy with the boat while struggling to maintain its clown image. The monster lured the poor boy further into the sewers until his arm was within his reach. But luckily for the brave boy, he snatched the paper boat away before it could chomp on his arm. Ben was flashed to the outside of the sewers, he could feel the rain pouring down and the smell of rainwater. The monster was no longer friendly-looking and scratched Georgie on the arm. As Georgie ran away from the sewer grate, the monster shapeshifted itself out of the grate and gave chase. Ben could now see what the monster looked like. It was bipedal, had orange hair around a white bulbous head, yellow eyes, wore a silver-ruffled clown costume, red boots, had lots of sharp teeth, and sharp claws.

When the vision ended, Ben found himself back to the present day. Ben then ran from the sewer grate just in case the clown was in there.

Ben quickly deduced that the clown was the same one on the WANTED list since yesterday. The clown in his vision fit the profile:orange hair, yellow eyes, sharp teeth, wolfy claws, and wearing ruffles. The Derry police were searching for the clown, but a few of them have been labelled 'Deceased' after their bodies were found chewed up. Everyone knew that it was the clown who killed the policemen and left them out to rot. After all, the clown was said to have sharp teeth.

Ben wondered where the clown was now as he pondered about the poor boy who was almost eaten by it in his vision. Ben heard the distant sound of his name being called and he turned around. Beverly was entering the library with a red balloon in her hand. She was wearing a tattered coat over a sweater and a long skirt. She had her long hair tied in a ponytail as always as Ben watched her from afar.

Beverly was there in the library with him and he felt his heart flutter in his chest. Beverly was busy browsing through the bookshelves as Ben tried to force himself to approach her. Ben stood up from his chair and just stood there as Beverly kept browsing.

C'mon, Ben! You can do this! Ben said as he tried to work up the courage to talk to Beverly. Ben took baby steps towards the girl as he kept on sweating from nervousness. Ben kept on steadily approaching her as the oblivious girl continued to browse. Ben was now just a foot away from her. Almost...there! But before Ben could walk a few steps more, Beverly suddenly turned around.

"Oh!" Beverly yelled and dropped the books in alarm and Ben stumbled back onto a table.

"Are you okay?! I'm sorry, I didn't mean to startle you!" Beverly held out her hand to Ben.

Ben shakily took Beverly's hand as he pulled himself up. "It's fine, I should have said hello to you first."

"Oh nononono, I should be the one apologizing! I'm Beverly. Beverly Marsh." She introduced herself to Ben jovially.

"I'm Ben Hanscom. We share the same homeroom together." Ben introduced himself to her shyly.

"Oh! Right!" Beverly's eyes lit up in realization. "Mrs. Douglas' our homeroom teacher."

Ben nodded. "Mm-hm."

"So? What'cha reading?" Beverly glanced behind at the table stacked with books.

"Oh, um...I'm reading on the history of Derry." Ben replied bashfully.

Ben hoped that Beverly wouldn't pick on him for reading dusty books instead of playing with his friends, IF he had any. But to his relief, Beverly just looked at him and smiled a toothy grin.

"That's great! It's nice that people like you care about Derry's history so much! Not many kids around here care about what happened in the past! You should be proud of yourself!" Beverly commended him.

Ben felt something heavy lifted from his chest when Beverly said those flattering words to him. He never been sincerely complimented before by anyone else besides his mom and the librarian lady.

And for the first time in his life, he had been complimented by someone other other those two. That person happened to be the girl of his dreams, Beverly Marsh.

Ben smiled as bright as the sun as he let the warm feeling wash over him. "Thanks, that means a lot to me."

"You're welcome!" Beverly gently smiled at him.

They both stared at each other with goo-goo eyes as they smiled warmly at each other.

"Soooooooo...care to ask me out on a date?" Beverly playfully cocked her head to the side.

Ben was taken aback, surprised that Beverly would ask him out on a date so soon.

 _A-a-a-a-a-a-a date?! So soon?!_ Ben thought wildly to himself.

As if Beverly read his mind, she smiled wider and said, "Yeah, a date! So that we can get to know each other!"

Ben felt his heart skip a beat as he stared into those beautiful ice-blue eyes. He couldn't believe that the girl of his dreams was finally asking him out on a date! It was a dream come true for him, he hoped he wouldn't screw up on their date!

"Absolutely!" Ben eagerly accepted. "But I gotta be home by 6 or my mom will call the police for me."

"Great!" Beverly grinned happily. "And don't worry, we'll be at your house at 6 in no time!"

"Then it's a deal!" Ben gleefully accepted.

Ben put his borrowed library books into his backpack and then went out with Beverly. Ben suggested that a good spot for a date would be at a local cafe, but she declined for some reason. Beverly instead told him that they were going to the abandoned house on Neibolt Street for their date. While Ben was unsure of visiting a house that was closed off by the Derry Police, she still managed to convince him into coming.

While on their way to the Neibolt Street House, Ben noticed how tightly Beverly grabbed onto him at all times. It was like she didn't want him to leave. While Ben admitted that he loved how protective Beverly seemed to be of him, it made him feel caged in. Also, Beverly looked like she was starving yet she refused Ben's offers to buy her food/drinks. Ben had no idea why Beverly would refuse to eat even though she was hungry. He understood that Beverly was being considerate towards him spending his allowance and all, but still he couldn't let her starve! Another thing that bothered Ben was how much Beverly was drooling. Ben knew that not all girls act all "ladylike" like Greta Bowie and Sally Mueller, but drooling while on a date?! The red balloon that Beverly held tight in her hand was giving Ben the creeps too. Not that Ben had a problem with balloons, but Beverly seemed rather attached to the balloon as it continued to dangle in the air above them.

But Ben didn't want to be rude to Beverly so he kept his mouth shut about the weird behavior Beverly was exhibiting. He wasn't one to judge people based on their appearances like most of the people in Derry. And Ben already knew how it felt to be judged based on appearance alone. He was bullied relentlessly by the Bowers Gang for his weight and his flabby chest. They would call him "t*ts" to take a stab at his weight and that was why he preferred to wear sweatshirts instead of T-shirts.

Ben was grateful that it was mid-Autumn so he would have a valid excuse to wear sweatshirts that covered his flabby chest. He felt more secure and safe when wearing those shirts. And he was on a date with the girl of his dreams, so Ben had to be on his best look and behavior.

Ben kept telling himself to not mess up as he and Beverly walked towards the Neibolt House. The area was covered in the bright, yellow "Do Not Cross" tapes. There were still the Derry police around and they were guarding the area 24/7.

When the police saw the young couple approach, one of them immediately questioned them. "What are you two kids doing out here without a grown-up?"

Before Ben could say a word, Beverly quickly responded, "Just on a date."

"Here at this crackpot old house?" The officer asked impolitely.

There was an offended expression on Beverly's face. "Excuse me?!"

Before the police officer could respond, a very familiar red-haired girl came riding towards them by bike.

Ben and the police officer were perplexed that there were TWO Beverlys now instead of one Beverly!


	5. Ben and Beverly

**October 2, 1988**

Beverly happened to ride by the Neibolt House until she saw something unusual. There was an EXACT COPY of her with one of her classmates at school! She pedaled towards the two as fast as she could in order to confront her impersonator.

That nightmare she just had last night came true...in a way. It first happened while she was sleeping this morning, she dreamt that a boy from her class would go on a date with her at the Neibolt House. But it then turned into a nightmare when Beverly's eyes became yellow and her teeth sharp and tried to eat the poor boy! There were also the sounds of yells and gunshots as the police fired at "Beverly." The fake Beverly sprouted long, sharp nails from her fingers and then proceeded to swipe at the surrounding officers. When Beverly woke up from her fitful sleep, she brushed it off as just a nightmare. But Beverly secretly feared that she would become the "maneater" the rich girls at school said she was.

Beverly went with her day as usual, she thought that it was going to be the same boring day. But when she just ride by the Neibolt House, she was proven wrong. There was a copy of herself with the boy from her class. She was even wearing the same exact clothes Beverly saw in her nightmare! And if it was true, the nightmare she had was a vision of the future! And if it was the vision of the future, then she had to stop the impersonator before she could hurt anyone!

Beverly took no chances. She dropped her bike on the sidewalk and she ran as fast as she could towards fake Beverly with her fists up.

"YAAAAAHHH!" Beverly tried to punch her in the face but the impersonator dodged her in time. She tried again but the impersonator was too quick! It grabbed her wrist and before she knew it, she was flung right over its head.

Beverly let out a cry of pain as she was hurled into the concrete.

"BEVERLY!" Her classmate yelled as he ran to help her.

But the fake Beverly moved in front of him and gripped him by the shirt. "NOt sO fAsT, faT Boy!"

Ben stared in horror as he saw that "Beverly's" appearance had changed. The fake Beverly's hair was no longer a wintry red, but a bright orange. Her blue eyes were now a sinister yellow and her teeth were now fangs. Her voice was also distorted and monstrous-sounding, adding to his obvious discomfort.

The police squad at the Neibolt House were alerted of the current situation and they all ran in to stop fake Beverly.

"FIRE!" A policeman yelled.

Bullets flew from all directions and shot fake Beverly. Ben managed to get "Beverly's" grip off of him before he quickly ran to Beverly.

Beverly had scrapes on her left shoulder and her left side. There was a swollen bruise on her left wrist where the fake Beverly grabbed her and flung her over its shoulder.

"BEVERLY! Beverly, are you okay?!" Ben put a hand on her right shoulder as the girl got back up on her feet.

"I'm fine. We have to get out of here, NOW!" Beverly grabbed Ben by the hand and ran towards her bike.

While fake Beverly was getting shot from all sides by the police, she growled angrily as she watched the two get away.

The fake Beverly then morphed back into that familiar clown and roared furiously at the police.

"IT'S THAT SAME CLOWN WHO KILLED OUR MEN!"

"GET HIM!"

And the gunshots continued as the clown was pierced through by hundreds of bullets from all sides. Though none of those bullets could kill the clown, they were enough to hurt IT due to the policemen's firm beliefs that they could hurt IT.

IT limped in pain as the gunfire continued and escaped via a nearby sewer grate.

"DON'T LET HIM GET AWAY!" A policeman yelled into his walkie-talkie.

And the chase continued between the clown and another police squad in the sewers.

* * *

Beverly was huffing and puffing as she pedaled as fast and as hard as she could. It was made even harder with a second passenger riding on the same bike as her. But Beverly wasn't the type of person to let someone get hurt. She had to help the poor boy before he got eaten by that demon.

Ben felt his face grow hot as his body pressed up against Beverly's back. He didn't want to get TOO CLOSE to her, but he had no choice since Beverly's bike had only one seat. They were also trying to get away from the flesh-eating creature as far as possible. And the police were shooting from their pistols from all directions, so staying at the Neibolt House was not a good option.

When they both got back into town, Beverly set her bike against the wall and huffed in exhaustion. Ben stumbled off her bike and fell to the ground, relieved that they were safe...for now. Beverly checked to make sure Ben was okay while she inhaled and exhaled large amounts of air.

"Hey."

Ben looked up at her.

"Are you alright?" Beverly asked him.

"Y-yes." Ben shyly answered, trying his best to maintain eye contact with her. "Are you?"

"I'm fine, just a few scrapes." Beverly replied.

"Who was that?" Beverly then asked, clearly unnerved by their encounter with the monster that pretended to be Beverly.

"I don't know. I thought that was you when I first met her in the library." Ben admitted sheepishly.

Beverly looked at Ben with comforting eyes. "It's not your fault, she led you into a trap and I was there to save you. You couldn't have known she wasn't me."

Ben looked up at her with surprised eyes. "You don't blame me?"

"No, not at all! She looked exactly like me! It was hard to tell that wasn't me you met at the library." Beverly consoled him.

Ben stood quietly as he let Beverly's comforting words wash over him. He had just been saved by the girl of his dreams from the monster who pretended to be said girl. But he was still rather disappointed that he couldn't save Beverly sooner after she was injured by that monster.

"It's been a weird day, isn't it?" Beverly spoke up.

Not knowing the right words to say to her, he nodded with a mere "mm-hm."

Beverly nervously tucked a strand of hair behind her ears and told Ben, "It's crazy, I had that weird dream this morning of me dating you at that same house. But it turns out that wasn't me! That was someone pretending to be me!"

Ben was shocked. "You had a dream about us dating?"

"Yeah, I mean-NO. That girl dating you was pretending to be me! Whoever that girl was tried to EAT YOU! And I just happened to pass by, not knowing it was happening in real life." Beverly told him.

Ben was deflated. "So you had no interest in dating me?"

"What?! NO. I never had someone who asked me on a date before without treating like a sl*t. I would LOVE to go on a date with you."

Ben looked up, feeling something heavy lift from his chest. "R-Really?!"

Beverly smiled brightly at him. "Yeah, really."

Ben felt much happier than he did in his entire life when Beverly(NOT the fake one) had just agreed to go on a date with him.

Before either of them could respond however, it started to rain.

"Let's get inside before we catch a cold!" Beverly told Ben as she pulled him inside the Costello Avenue Market.

* * *

While Ben and Beverly were drying inside the market, they continued talking about the weird events that happened the day before and today.

"A clown in a storm drain just tried to eat a kid yesterday." Ben told her as they both perused the paid newspaper article.

"Yeah, the newspaper said the clown's name was "Pennywise The Dancing Clown." Beverly said.

"And the kid who got attacked was George Elmer Denbrough." Ben said.

"He's also related to William Denbrough. Otherwise known as "Stuttering Bill" at our school." Beverly said.

"Do you know him?" Ben asked her.

"No, do you?" Beverly replied and asked back.

"Not so much. We were on the same team in dodgeball once but that's it." Ben answered.

"Anyways, about that clown...did they get an ID on him?" Beverly asked.

Ben shook his head. "No, the police couldn't trace where 'Pennywise' came from or who his parents are. And they haven't caught him yet."

"I wonder where the clown is now. He just killed a few policemen last night and their bodies were found chewed up in the sewers." Beverly said as she looked at the pictures of the corpses in the newspaper.

"We're safe as long as we have the adults by our side at all times. And the police is keeping a tight check on all of Derry, especially the sewers." Ben said.

"I hope so. But the problem is that the clown keeps on disappearing before the police could grab him. How could he do that?" Beverly asked.

"I don't know. But I DO know that things have gone really strange the past couple of days." Ben told her.

"You mean besides the clown, there was this girl who looked almost exactly like me and tried to eat you?" Beverly asked him.

"Not only that, it's those dreams we just had last night and today." Ben replied.

Beverly's eyes widened. "Your dreams too?"

"Yeah. It was like I could see into the past. The dreams were so real, it felt like I was there. But I wasn't." Ben told her.

"I know the feeling. I experienced my dream exactly the same way you did." Beverly told him.

"You mean you could not only see and hear what was going on?" Ben asked curiously.

"Yeah, I could smell and feel what was going on around me in my dream. I could smell the soggy, dead leaves and feel the autumn breeze. It felt so real." Beverly described.

"I could smell and feel what it was like in the sewers. There was the smell of rotting carcasses, human waste, and garbage. It was disgusting." Ben wrinkled his nose.

"What did you see and hear in your dream?" Beverly asked him.

"There was a monster that had just woken up from its sleep in the sewer. I couldn't really see what it looked like because it was too dark. I could hear that the monster was growling and splashing around in sewer water." Ben said.

Beverly's eyes went wide. "A monster?!"

"Yeah, it had those glowing yellow eyes and it looked kinda big too. But nonetheless, it was too dark for me to see what it looked like." Ben said.

"What happened next?" Beverly asked.

Ben took a deep breath and spoke, "Then George showed up."

Beverly's voice hitched in her throat. "That kid from the newspaper?!"

Ben nodded grimly. "Yes."

"And the clown in the storm drain?" Beverly asked.

"Yes." Ben nodded again.

Beverly didn't want to ask Ben further as she saw that he was traumatized by that vision. She decided to change the subject.

"So you can see into the past, right?" Beverly asked him.

"I think so. That vision I had this morning...it told me what happened the day before! But how?" Ben replied.

"I don't know. Ever since the clown appeared, weird things have been happening in Derry lately. My dream this morning told me what was going to happen later on that day. It was like I could see into the future now. It never happened before." Beverly shook her head in disbelief.

"Same for me. But Derry has always had strange happenings ever since it was built hundreds of years ago." Ben said.

"Really?"

"Yeah, I've been reading Derry history books in the library almost every single day. A lot of people went missing every 27 to 30 years for some unknown reason. Very few of them were found, but they've already been chewed up and ripped apart by some...animal." Ben informed her.

"Did anyone know what the animal was?" Beverly asked.

Ben sadly shook his head. "No, not even the animal experts could identify what animal killed them. Its teeth marks and claw marks aren't like anything the zoologists have ever seen before. They said the teeth looked like it came from a shark and that the claws looked like they came from a wolf. But nonetheless, they couldn't trace what they belonged to."

Beverly's eyes lit up in recognition. "Do you think the clown the police are hunting down is the animal who killed those poor people? I mean, it fits the description: sharp teeth and wolfy claws! That's gotta be him!"

"For the present day, yes. But what about before? Did the clown exist back then?" Ben asked.

Beverly tapped her finger thoughtfully on her chin. "I'm not sure."

"I'm going to look up more on the clown when I get home. I'll have to see if he has any ancestors who are behind the killings for the past centuries in Derry." Ben said.

"I'm gonna go home now. Dad will be upset if I'm out too long. I'll see you when we get back to school tomorrow. We'll talk about our date then!" Beverly said as she waved goodbye to Ben and went outside to retrieve her bicycle.

Ben shyly waved goodbye back as he watched Beverly ride away on her bike in the rain.

Ben checked his watch that his mother gifted to him. It read 4:18 PM, which meant that he had an hour and forty minutes left before supper. Ben had nothing else to do today so he just ran straight home.

* * *

Ben was soaking wet by the time he reached the front door of his house. His mother was still cooking supper as he put his backpack down and ran up the stairs.

"Ben! You're soaking wet!" His mom concernedly called out to him.

"Don't worry, mom! I'm going to take a shower right now!" Ben said to her.

"Okay! Just make sure to turn the heater on while you bathe!" His mom said.

"Yes mom!" Ben said as he turned on the water in the bathtub.

While Ben showered, he tried to calm himself down about what happened so far. First, he had those visions of the past of his library book, Beverly showering, and Georgie getting attacked by the clown. Second, he was seduced by a fake Beverly into a date at the Neibolt Street House. Third, he was rescued by the REAL Beverly and the Derry Police from the fake Beverly. Fourth, Beverly told him that she had a vision of the future about fake Beverly attacking him. And FIFTH, the real Beverly finally asked him out on a date!

While Ben was perplexed and scared about what happened, he also felt giddy and joyful. He finally got to talk with Beverly and start a relationship with her. After all these years of struggling to go to the girl of his dreams and talk, he finally did it! He finally got Beverly to like him for who he is and show genuine interest in him!

He DEFINITELY was excited to see Beverly in school tomorrow! That way they could continue talking about the cursed history of Derry and 'Pennywise The Dancing Clown.' They would even have each others' backs from the bullies that plagued their school from now on.

Both of their lives were taking a sudden upturn because of those supernatural events that started happening the 1st of October.

While Ben finally got Beverly to notice him, they had to now survive the clutches of the killer clown prowling around Derry. The year of 1988 was within the 27-30 year period those strange disappearances/murders occurred in Derry.

Ben wished to himself that he and Beverly would survive for a few years until the killings came to a stop. Then they would be old enough to move from that cursed town FOREVER. They would live happy lives unperturbed in a nice house and their children until they both died from old age.


	6. Ben and Beverly

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about the wait everybody!
> 
> I'm just very stressed due to people making fun of Georgie's death and claiming that he deserved to die for "trusting" a "creepy clown in the sewers."
> 
> And I have been doing research on the 80's too in order to make the setting fit the 80's vibe.

**October 2, 1998**

Beverly pedaled back home as fast as she could. She knew she couldn't risk her incestuous father catching her with dirt, scrapes, and bruises on her skin. He would think that someone tried to molest his "little girl" and beat her to the ground. Parking her bike near the doorsteps, she opened the door to her apartment with the key hanging around her neck.

She hurried through the front door as she made her way towards the bathroom. But a large, looming figure blocked her path.

Beverly looked up at her father with a calm expression on her face as always. She didn't want to let her father know thaf she was scared of him.

Alvin Marsh smiled a creepy smile as he assessed Beverly's condition. "Hey, Bevvie. What happened to you?"

Beverly stared at him right in the eye. "A girl attacked me while I was on my bike."

"Who is this girl you're speaking of?" Alvin pressed further.

"I don't know." Beverly said. She didn't want her father to know that she was trying to save a boy from her class from her impersonator. He would get really mad at this and rape her until her insides bled. She surely didn't want to lose her virginity to her incestuous father.

Alvin sighed and then looked darkly at Beverly. "I'm worried about you, Bevvie. I'm worried about you a lot."

Both Beverly and Alvin stared at each other in silence for a minute before Beverly moved past him.

"I'm going to take a shower." Beverly said as she made her way into the bathroom and shut the door.

She put her faded peach-colored towel over the shower rack and got some clean clothes. She unclothed herself before stepping into the bathtub and turning the water on. She waited until the water was warm enough before turning the shower on. She closed the shower curtain around her to prevent the water from splashing around the floor.

Beverly aimed her face up at the sprinkling showerhead to wash away the stress. She felt a lot better considering that she met someone who didn't treat her horribly. Both the boys and the other girls at her school treated her like a prostitute because of her looks and her poverty. She would even get ogled by the school faculty and staff sometimes. Other times, they would be repulsed by her and accuse her of having sexual affairs with every male in the school. Not even the principal or the vice-principal could help her.

The only person so far who didn't treat her horribly was Ben Hanscom. She did catch him glancing at her time-to-time when they were in homeroom, but none of those glances were lustful or hateful in any matter. Beverly was very thankful for that and was rather concerned about the poor boy. Ben was also a misfit like Beverly, particularly because of his weight and his interest in Derry's dark history. She was worried that Ben didn't want to be near her because of her false reputation as a prostitute. She couldn't blame Ben though, he was trying not to give themselves more negative attention than they both already had. Even worse, her father would be FURIOUS when he found out that Beverly had a boyfriend. She didn't even want to think what would happen to the both of them if her father found out.

She was also worried about the emergence of the killer clown around Derry yesterday. Because of that, the Derry Police Department closed off the storm drains and the sewers. They even issued a 7PM curfew for all of the inhabitants of Derry, young and old. No child or teenager was allowed outside without a "trusted adult" and any child found wandering alone by themselves is sent directly to the Derry Police Station.

Thanks to Ben, Beverly was now aware that Derry was small town with a dark secret. Strange murders and disappearances happened every 27 years without warning. No one knew so far who was behind these terrible events and the culprits managed to avoid arrest every single time. But now, everyone knows that the killer this year was a clown with orange hair and yellow eyes. So if the police capture the clown, they have a chance of unraveling the mysteries behind the deaths and disappearances of the people in the past. Then the 27-year cycle would finally stop before a lot more lives could be taken!

Beverly wondered where the clown was now, she hadn't yet seen the clown in person as far as she knew. But she did see the fake Beverly's hair turn orange and eyes turn yellow before she escaped with Ben.

On the other hand, she wondered if the premonitions happen again in the future. She had one so far, but Ben told her he had more than one vision of the past. The vision of the future proved useful since she managed save that life before it was taken away. While Beverly was still a bit astonished by her newfound power, she sought it to good use. She could see what events would happen in the future and act accordingly.

Beverly decided to test her precognitive power by closing her eyes and focusing on tomorrow. In an instant, Beverly felt herself in a dreamlike state and opened her eyes. She wasn't in the shower anymore, she was now outside Derry Elementary in the morning. She saw the Derry School Buses drive by the school and stop before opening their doors. She saw familiar and not-so-familiar faces as she watched the students pour out of the buses. She tried to look for Ben within the throngs of students and she was flashed to a frontal view of him. Ben was stumbling down the steps of the bus and was jogging towards the school, but not before he got caught by Henry Bowers. She saw that a group of other students were being bullied too. Beverly saw a tall boy with dark brown hair, a mouthy boy with glasses, and a small boy with a fanny pack. The Bowers Gang was pushing the six of them around and laughing maliciously as they did so. As Beverly worried over the boys getting bullied, she saw herself in the future standing up for them. But before a fight could escalate, one of the bus patrons stopped them.

Breaking out of the vision, Beverly stepped out of the shower water and opened her eyes. She felt a bit woozy after that hallucinatory experience that she had to massage the sides of her head. She turned the water and dried her hair off with her towel. Stepping out of the bathtub, she dried her body before putting her clean clothes on.

* * *

As soon as Beverly reached her bedroom, she got out a small, empty, cheap, worn-out notebook and labelled it "My Dream Journal" with a Sharpie. She used a ballpoint pen to jot down the first two visions of the future she had so far before marking it place and hiding the notebook in her drawer. She heard her stomach grumble and went to the kitchen to cook dinner.

She put on her apron and searched the fridge for any groceries her dad bought. There was a good amount of vegetables, especially corn resting on the top shelf. There was also cream, milk, and butter she could use to make a creamy soup. She got out a medium-sized pot, washed it, and filled the pot halfway with water. She set the pot on the stove and turned the fire on to 'High'. She washed the vegetables thoroughly as the water in the pot boiled. She washed her hands and then sliced, diced, and minced the vegetables expertly as she learned in her Home Eck classes. After she was done, she put the vegetables into the boiling water and put in dairy to make the liquid thick. She put in salt and ground pepper for taste before stirring the pot with a wooden spoon. She then put the soup-covered spoon into the sink and covered the pot with the lid before going to the living room to alert her father.

"Hey." Beverly knocked on the wall. "Dinner's ready. I made us some corn chowder."

Alvin sat up on the sofa and looked up at her, smiling creepily. "That's great. Let's get our dinner and sit on the sofa together, Bevvie."

Beverly made no protest and let her father wrap an arm around her as they walked to the kitchen to get their dinner.

* * *

Beverly and her father both sat in silence as they absent-mindedly watched TV while slurping the soups from their bowls. The show onscreen was some kind of children's programming. There was a schoolteacher with messy, short dark-brown hair sitting in the middle of the screen. She looked like she was in her 30s or 40s and wore clothes from the 1950's. Her attire consisted of a dark navy blue dress with a big, white collar and red jewelry. Several children/teenagers encircling her wore attire that came from the Colonial, Victorian, and Edwardian eras. The other children/teenagers wore clothes from the early 30's and late 50's/early 60's.

Some of the children/teenagers spoke in Early Modern English while the others spoke in Late Modern English. But nonetheless, it wasn't very hard to understand what they were saying.

The show mysteriously appeared yesterday without any advertisements or announcements whatsoever. Beverly found it rather unusual that the names of the characters in the show weren't anyone she'd heard of before.

Also they were said to be filming in Derry, but where? Beverly wasn't given a single hint of where they were specifically filming in Derry.

She also found it even weirder that no one else seemed to questioned the show's existence.

Not even her disgusting excuse for a father cared either, he was too busy thinking about Beverly's budding sex life to know what was going on.

Beverly tried her best to avoid close contact with her father as much as possible as they ate their dinner.

Luckily for her, her father immediately fell asleep right after he was done eating. While the show droned on, Beverly carefully picked up the now-empty bowls and tiptoed silently to the kitchen.

* * *

After Beverly was done washing the dishes, she tiptoed back to her bedroom and laid on her bed. She had nothing else to do besides stay home and finish her homework since it was almost 6 pm.

"Sh*t..." Beverly muttered to herself. She wished that she asked Ben for his phone number so she would stay in touch with him and not feel alone at home.

But of course, she couldn't risk her father catching her on the phone with a boy, so she needed to time her calls right.

She would only use the phone at home like she always did. And she would only use it when her dad wasn't home. If her dad came home while she was in the middle of a call with Ben, she would end it straight away and put the phone back where it originally was. She would have to tell Ben later that she had to cut off their phone session because she didn't want her dad to catch her talking to a boy.

Beverly sighed to herself and unzipped her worn-out black backpack to start on her Social Studies homework. She had to read Chapter 3 of her History textbook about how Christopher Columbus discovered America and answer all of the questions onto a separate sheet of paper.

Within a half-hour, she was done and moved onto her Science homework. She had to fill out a worksheet about the human body and the function of each organ in short-response.

Beverly had already finished her English, Music, and Math homework yesterday and the day before that. And her Home Economics homework was a 2-week project that involved knitting a hat. She also had her gym uniform washed and dried yesterday at the laundromat for tomorrow's PE class.

Beverly looked at her clock, it was now 6:10 pm and only fifty minutes before curfew. She made sure to check that all of the windows and doors in the house were locked before retreating back into her bedroom.

She reopened her dream journal and thought about the new people she would meet when she confronts the bullies tomorrow morning. She hoped that they wouldn't buy into the false rumor like everyone else that she was a "sl*t".

Beverly never had any friends as a result of her poor background. And besides her father would be more possessive of her once he finds out she is hanging out with other people besides him.

She knew that she liked Ben despite only knowing him for a short time since he used to be the new kid in school. She secretly hoped that once she finished high school, she and Ben would move away from her incestuous father and start a new life together.

She probably could use her precognition right now to see whether or not she and Ben would get married and have a happy life together, but right now she was exhausted from today's events. Saving Ben from that monster and riding all the way back to a safe place left her mentally and physically tired out.

She hoped that Ben was safe now that she got them both to safety. Beverly also hoped to see Ben and the others tomorrow morning when they are at school.

Beverly already had a feeling outside of her newfound power that she was going to get more friends tomorrow.

And she wished for it.

* * *

Ben was still at home, trying to skim through his newly-borrowed library books for any mentions of a killer clown. Sadly, there were no mentions about any clowns at all in those books. Ben sighed to himself as he silently reminded himself to go check for any books on clowns, especially those that kill and eat children.

Ben looked at his watch, it was already 6:55pm and thank goodness he was already home two hours earlier. It was five minutes away from curfew and he hoped that everyone was inside, safe and sound.

He wondered how Beverly was doing at her house. He secretly hoped that Beverly reciprocated his feelings for her even though they just got to know each other.

And the fact Beverly tried to save his life from the fake Beverly added to his adoration of her. She was a very nice girl compared to most of the girls he met in their school. Greta Bowie-Keene and her clique were awfully mean to almost everyone they met due to being rich and beautiful(but only because they seemed to perm their hair every single day).

Ben always thought Beverly was more beautiful than those spoilt, mean girls due to her natural beauty and kindness. Despite the fact Beverly always wore cheap and worn-out clothes and wore her hair in a loose ponytail, Ben thought she looked gorgeous no matter what.

Her wintry red hair, icy blue eyes, and bright smile made Beverly look absolutely stunning even in plain clothes. Ben couldn't imagine how Beverly would look with makeup and a beautiful prom dress. She would look even more stunning than ever! But nonetheless, Ben thought Beverly was most beautiful when she wasn't trying to be.

Ben hoped that Beverly would stay beautiful that way and not stray in the direction of Greta Bowie and her clique's fashion choices. He hated to think about what Beverly would look like to him if she tried to imitate the mean girls' looks. He also didn't want Beverly to be one of those snobby, mean girls like those mentioned above. Ben wouldn't want Beverly to be another one of those bullies jabbing at his weight and interest in Derry's morbid history.

Even more embarrassing was that he was big fan of The New Kids On The Block, which was a pop boy-band whose hits haven't reached the Top 10 yet. He hoped Beverly wouldn't make fun of him for being a huge fan of The New Kids On The Block because of their unpopularity.

Ben lied down on his bed as he blissfully visualized him and Beverly together in happiness

 

 


	7. Richie and Eddie

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Before you read this chapter I'd like to warmly thank Trashmouth(Christenga), SonnyApril, and Lil for lifting my spirits up!

**October 3, 1988**

_RINGRINGRINGRINGRINGRINGRING!_

Richie's brown eyes shot open as he slowly sat up in bed and hit the snooze button on his alarm clock. He flopped back onto the bed as he sleepily put his pillow into his face.

"F*ck..." Richie groaned into his pillow. "I hate Mondays..."

He swung his legs over his bed and stretched his arms out before yawning heavily. He glanced over on his alarm clock and it read 7:05AM in digital. He had to go brush his teeth, wash his face, get dressed, and go downstairs for breakfast like every morning.

He marched to the bathroom to go brush his teeth and wash his face before picking out a faded yellow He-Man sweatshirt and acid-washed jeans. He put on his large Coke-bottle glasses and headed downstairs for breakfast.

Richie smelled apples, French toast, oatmeal, and apple cider as he went down the steps. He went downstairs to greet his mother, who was preparing breakfast and lunch for him.

His mother warmly said back, "Good morning, sweetheart."

"G'Morning, mom!"

Richie dug into his breakfast without hesitation. Unlike his friends' parents, both of his parents treated him very well. His father was a dentist and was out most of the time, but he treated his wife and son very well despite that. His father would even join Richie on mimicking voices and doing impressions of people whenever they were together.

Richie's mother treated him very well too, but she couldn't understand him very well no matter how hard she tried. She even accidentally mentioned that it would have been easier to understand Richie if he was girl at one point, which hurt her son's feelings.

Richie still felt most comfortable hanging out with his friends though. They were people his age, so they had a better connection with them. After he was done slurping the last of his apple cider, he dumped his dish and glass into the sink before grabbing his black-and-silver backpack and charging out of the front door with his packed lunch.

"See you later, mom!" Richie waved back at his mom as he ran towards the school bus.

"Take care, honey!" Richie's mom waved back at him, smiling. "Be careful out there!"

"I will! Thanks, mom!" Richie said as entered the school bus.

All of the other kids in Richie's neighborhood were piling into the bus as their parents bid them farewell outside of their couldn't blame the parents at this moment, there was a killer clown who appeared two days ago and tried to eat a boy. The parents would act horribly if they found out their kids were eaten by a cannibalistic clown.

Richie's parents would act horrified if they found out he suddenly disappeared too. He also knew Eddie's mom would act even worse since she was WAY overprotective of her son.

He sat in the front seat as the other kids around him talked to each other about about the terrible events that occurred so far over the weekend.

"I'm never looking into the sewers again!"

"Why was there a clown in the storm drain anyways?"

"Poor boy! I hope he is still safe!"

"I hope the clown didn't rip his arm off and eat it!"

"Did you hear about what happened yesterday?!"

"The new kid almost got killed by that Beverly girl at that haunted house!"

"I knew that girl was trouble!"

"I hope she goes to jail like Dorsey's evil stepfather!"

Richie already knew who those people who were just mentioned were. Richie was best buds with Bill Denbrough, Stan Uris, AND "Eddie Spaghetti" Kaspbrak since they were in preschool.

Richie was also there when Bill's little brother was born two years after they met. He, Eddie, and Stan would occasionally help Bill babysit his little brother while their parents were away. It was kinda stressful given that Bill's brother was painfully naive and innocent and that he would do dumb stuff like going outside by himself. But Richie couldn't blame Georgie though, he was only a little kid and he hadn't reached puberty yet. It was very natural for little kids to make irrational decisions and act inappropriately in a lot of situations.

When Richie heard the news about Georgie almost getting killed, he ran to Bill's house without hesitation. But Bill and his family had already gone to the hospital, so Richie had to run home, soaking wet in the rain.

Richie hoped that Bill was feeling better since he had a cold and had to stay home for like a week. He also hoped Georgie was feeling better after his near-death experience last Saturday, someone so young and innocent like Georgie didn't deserve a horrible fate.

And about the "new kid" and the "Beverly girl", he hardly even knew them besides the fact they shared the same school together. Richie obviously didn't know much about the "new kid" because he just moved to Derry a few months ago. Richie had been around Beverly longer, but they hardly interacted with each other, even when they shared a few classes before.

And Dorsey Corcoran was the younger brother of Edward Corcoran, he was hospitalized in May 1988 after he was found almost beaten to death by his abusive stepfather. Thankfully, Dorsey successfully healed from his injuries and his abusive stepdad was sent to Shawshank State Penitentiary for life. Dorsey amassed a lot of shock and pity from his school and was given a lot get-well presents while he recovered in the hospital for four months. Dorsey was back in time before school started and was now happy and healthy.

Richie hoped that Dorsey would continue to stay out of harm's way since there was a killer clown on the loose in Derry. Poor Dorsey deserved better after that brutal beating by his stepfather.

When the school bus arrived at Derry Elementary, all of the students piled out of the bus and went inside the school. Richie stayed outside to look for his friends.

Richie found Eddie nearby and quickly ran to him. "Hey, Eddie!"

Eddie looked in Richie's direction and walked over to him. "Hey, Rich. Have you seen Bill nearby? We know Stan's not at school today."

"Not yet, is he around?" Richie adjusted his glasses.

"I don't know, that's why I came to you." Eddie said to him.

"H-H-H-Hey! L-l-leave us alone!" A familiar stuttering voice reached their ears.

Richie and Eddie looked over in the direction of the voice and didn't waste time running over.

"BILL!" Richie and Eddie called out to him as they ran to his aid.

Henry Bowers, Victor Criss, Belch Huggins, and Patrick Hockstetter were shoving Bill and the "new kid" down onto the grass. They were laughing and mocking them as they continued to bully the three as they struggled to get up.

Before Richie and Eddie could intervene however, a girl with flaming red hair tackled Belch down into the grass. Henry, Vic, and Patrick were stunned for a split-second before Richie and Eddie joined the fray.

"YIPPEE KI-YAY MOTHERF*CKER!" Richie did his best Bruce Willis' Die Hard impression as he lunged into Patrick.

Eddie lunged into Vic. Bill also took advantage of the distraction and tackled Henry into the ground. As eight of them continued to fight outside the school, one of the bus patrons ran in and stopped the fight.

"HEY! HEY! HEY! That's enough fighting for today!" She separated the Bowers' Gang from Richie, Eddie, Bill, and the redhead.

"NOW WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?!" She put her hands on her hips and looked at both sides disapprovingly.

Eddie quickly jumped in and pointed at the Bowers' Gang. "They attacked first, miss! We were on our way to school until they attacked us!"

"NOT TRUE!" Henry roared and then pointed at Bill. "They were the ones who drew first blood! They attacked us when we were talking to the new kid!"

Bill argued back. "N-n-n-n-n-n-no! Th-th-that wasn't what happened, miss! They were b-b-b-bullying him! I tried to st-stop them!"

"Why don't you stop sticking your nose where it doesn't belong, you STUTTERING FREAK?!" Vic yelled at Bill.

"Why don't you shut your f*cking mouth, a**hole?!" Richie retorted back at Vic.

"THAT'S ENOUGH!" The bus patron boomed over them.

And everyone suddenly went quiet .

"Now GO INSIDE before I tell the principal about your little squabble outside! I DON'T CARE WHO started it! If I see you fighting again, you'll be at the principal's office pronto! IS THAT CLEAR?!" The patron rebuked.

"Yes, ma'am." Everyone, except Beverly and Richie said unenthusiastically in unison.

After the bus patron was gone, the club and the gang glared at each other as they walked into the school.

Bill accompanied Richie and Eddie as they continued into homeroom. Ben and Beverly went together into their homeroom with no Henry in sight.

All students in Derry High had a homeroom period at the beginning and end of school for their assigned teachers to take attendance. Students could enter whenever they wanted as long as they were present before the end of homeroom. Once the students entered their homeroom, they had to stay until the period ended or they would be marked as "cutting."

Richie and Eddie sat patiently in their assigned seats as their homeroom teacher, Mr. Fisher took their attendance. Bill walked into the classroom briskly as the teacher continued marking down the students that were present.

"Psst! Hey Bill!" Richie whispered to Bill.

Bill looked in his direction tiredly. "Wh-what, Richie?"

"You feeling better? Is your brother okay?" Richie asked him.

"Y-y-yeah. My flu's dying down and Georgie's ar-ar-arm is getting better." Bill replied.

"That's great." Eddie joined in. "Hey, Bill. You need more Kleenex? You look like you need some."

Bill gratefully accepted the pack of disposable tissues from Eddie. "Th-thanks, Eddie."

"So what happened while you were at the hospital?" Eddie asked Bill concernedly.

Bill blew his nose on a tissue. "The doc-doc-doctors at the Derry Home Hospital st-st-stitched up the scratches on Georgie's arm. The po-po-police were there too. Th-th-th-they asked Georgie to describe the cl-cl-clown who attacked him. And th-th-then you know what happened."

"The 7PM curfew." Richie answered.

"Yeah, but I then had another fe-fe-fe-fe-fe-fe-fe-fe-" Bill's face scrunched up as he tried to say the word.

Eddie's eyes widened in worry. "Fever?! How did it happen?!"

"I went out-out-outside in the rain with my parents and it was c-c-c-cold. But I-I-I didn't want Georgie to d-d-d-d-die!" Bill answered.

"What the f*ck, man?! You went outside in the rain while you were sick! You shoulda stayed home!" Richie hissed furiously at Bill.

"But not without Georgie!" Bill suddenly rose his voice. "It was my fault that he is hurt! I should've never sent outside to play with the boat I made for him! I should've been there with him! If someone hadn't found him before..." Bill trailed off, tears threatening to leak from his eyes.

Richie and Eddie went silent as Bill started to cry.

Everyone else in the classroom pretended not to notice and kept on with their business.

Mr. Fisher cleared his throat and tapped his desk with his ruler to gain everybody's attention.

"Class? May I have your attention please?"

Everyone stopped talking and turned around to face their teacher.

"There are two new teachers who will be joining our school as of yesterday's arrangements. They will be teaching two new subjects here at our school."

All of the students whispered to each other about the two possible new subjects they would have at their school. And they wondered if the new teachers were nice and all.

Richie mischievously whispered to his friends, "Do you think our new teachers are gonna be hot chicks? I would like to put my big-a** d*ck inside either one of them and jiggle it around!"

"Beep beep Richie." Eddie glared at him disapprovingly as Bill looked at him, unamused.

Their teacher revealed the names of the teachers and their subjects on the chalkboard while holding up a packet in his other hand.

"The first one is Mr. Theophylactus Maturin, who will be teaching Latin class. You can only take one Foreign Language class per year. So if you are currently taking a Foreign Language class but want to take Latin, you can drop the previous class and replace it with Latin."

"What f*cking kind of person has a name that long?!" Richie asked his friends a little too loudly.

"Shut up, Richie." Bill admonished him.

"And the second one is Mr. Robert Gray..."

Richie didn't catch what words that came after that because he was too distracted by the sharp intake of breath Bill took.

Bill looked as pale as a ghost and he was staring into space like he heard something horrible.

"Bill?" Richie grabbed Bill's shoulder and shook him a bit. "Bill, what's wrong?!"

"BILL!" Eddie screamed as he and Richie grabbed Bill and shook him wildly.

Unfortunately, everyone in the class stopped and turned their attention to the frantic three boys.

"Excuse me, gentlemen. Is there a problem here?" Mr. Fisher glared at them sternly.

Bill snapped out of his daze and fumbled to apologize. "Uh, no! No, Mr. Fis-Fis-Fisher! I'm j-j-j-j-just not feeling very well, th-th-th-that's all!"

"Well, William Denbrough, if you are still not feeling well, I can arrange a pass for you to the nurse's office or the guidance counselor. I'm well aware of the circumstances that happened to you and your brother."

"Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh no thanks, Mr. Fisher. I'm alright." Bill said to him.

"Very well then. Just let me know if you need to excuse yourself." Mr. Fisher reminded him.

_RING!RING!RING!RING!RING!RING!RING!RING!_

"Class dismissed." Mr. Fisher said.

All three of them walked out of the classroom to unload stuff they didn't need for their 1st Period classes into their lockers.

Richie had Drama class 1st Period so he just got his Drama folder and notebook out of his locker before closing it shut. He made his way towards Drama class and sat in his assigned seat before the late bell rang.

"Good morning class!" His drama teacher cheerfully greeted everyone.

"Good morning, Ms. Wells." Most of the class greeted her apathetically.

"I take it you all read your lines for Act Three?" She asked everyone.

"Yes." Everyone answered.

"Excellent! Now everyone go to the auditorium so we can do our warm-up exercise!" She ushered them out to the backstage out the door.

The play they were acting in was Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde adapted by Thomas Russell Sullivan from Robert Louis Stevenson's original novel.

Richie was playing an extra, but is also a replacement for the lead character(s) in case the student was absent.

Richie loved to act and mimick impressions of other people. It helped get him attention and distract him from his loneliness despite the fact he made a fool of himself.

When they did their warm-up exercise, it was the same thing every single day.

They all had to stand around in a circle and project their voices across one another. It made everyone feel silly, but the teacher insisted they do so to get into shape.

When it was Richie's turn to project his voice, he decided to improvise by inhaling lungfuls of air and screaming out, "HEY YO, MAH NAME'S RICHIE! AND I GOT A BIG F*CKING D*CK AN' I'M NOT AFRAID TO SHOW IT!"

Richie then pompously put his hand on his crotch and thrust shamelessly.

Everyone in the class howled in laughter, except Ms. Wells who was taken aback by Richie's use of profanity.

"Mr. Tozier! We do not use foul language in this school! Excellent voice projection, but no swearing is allowed in my class!" Ms. Wells chastised Richie.

"Yes, ma'am." Richie said in a faux-French accent while adjusting his large glasses again.

"Alright, who's next?"


	8. Richie and Eddie

**October 3, 1988**

Meanwhile, Eddie was in Health class. He was furiously scribbling down every single thing his Health teacher spoke about. The topic was still on sexually transmitted diseases like AIDS, hepatitis, herpes, etc. Eddie certainly didn't want to get sicker than he already was. His mom told him that he was born with a very delicate body and that if he did not keep watchful care of it, he would end up dead like his dad.

His dad died of cancer when he was very young. He learned from his mother that cancer can be caused by smoking a lot and he was warned that his lungs were very sensitive. In response, Eddie's mom always provided him his asthma medicine every single day to clean out his lungs. She even gave him pills and a watch to remind him everyday to purge his body from viruses and bacteria.

So far, Eddie was fine thanks to the medicine. But he was still afraid to catch a serious disease and die from it. Especially from incurable diseases like AIDS, he learned that HIV can be transferred by bodily fluids like blood, semen, and vaginal discharge. Eddie was thankful that HIV wasn't spread like common pathogens like the cold and the flu via touching, kissing, and coughing/sneezing. The HIV could only be spread by sexual intercourse, sharing needles, and bleeding into open wounds.

Eddie made an important reminder that he was NEVER going to have sex, do drugs, and avoid touching other people's blood for the rest of his life.

When the Health teacher asked one of the students to turn the lights off, he showed pictures of the diseases onscreen.

Eddie hyperventilated rather quickly when he saw the disgusting pictures of the STD pathogens and the results of contracting those diseases.

Eddie's vision went in and out as his hyperventilating continued on. He abruptly reached for his aspirator in his fanny pack and took a deep puff from it.

"Mr. Kaspbrak, are you alright? Do you need to go to the Nurse's Office again?" His Health teacher concernedly asked him.

Eddie couldn't respond, he was still taking deep breaths in and out as he tried to get his respiratory rate back to normal.

"Mr. Kaspbrak!" His Health teacher called out to him as his vision faded in and out.

Eddie took a deep gulp of air before finally responding with a quick nod and running out of the door.

He slammed the door shut behind him before continuing to gulp in large amounts of air. He sat against the wall next to his Health classroom door and tightly hugged himself.

Eddie quivered as he tried to get those nasty, disgusting images he saw on the projector screen out of his felt so weak and helpless because of him having an asthma attack in front of the whole class because of just a bunch of pictures.

If only he hadn't had asthma in the first place, he wouldn't have embarassed himself in front of the entire class! His classmates inside the room must have been giggling at him again. The rich and popular Greta Bowie, whom he had a crush on must have been laughing at him too.

He took another deep puff from his aspirator just to be safe. He couldn't ever stand parting with his aspirator, it had been his lifesaver throughout his entire life. It saved him from fainting from asthma attacks when he was in stressful situations. If his aspirator wasn't there to save him, he would have died.

Eddie NEVER forgot his aspirator, ever. Even when he was a little kid, he always remembered to take it with him just in case.

As Eddie sat there moping about his situation, he was startled by someone standing over him.

Eddie looked up and saw a kindly old man with glimmering blue-green eyes. He was beginning to hyperventilate again before the old man spoke to him

"Hello there."

Eddie felt something warm wash over him when he heard that comforting, soothing voice. He looked up at the man in the eyes and was soon transfixed by them.

"H-hello, mister." Eddie nervously greeted.

"What are you doing in the hallway?" The old man asked him.

"I had another asthma attack." Eddie quietly replied.

"Did you now?"

"Mm-hm." Eddie nodded.

"Do you need me to escort you to the Nurse's Office?"

"No thank you, I just need to catch my breath and I'll be okay again."

"Well, thank goodness. I am Mr. Maturin, of the new Latin class. Pleased to meet you, son." The old man held out his hand.

Eddie reluctantly shoke Mr. Maturin's hand, aware there were germs and bacteria on people's hands. "Eddie Kaspbrak, 7th grade."

"Ah, Eddie. I've heard many things about you." Mr. Maturin told him.

Eddie curiously cocked his head to the side, apprehensive of what Mr. Maturin would say. "Yes? What is it?"

"I know that underneath that seemingly fragile and sickly exterior lies a heart of a lion. As weak as you think you may be, you certainly are not." Mr. Maturin told him.

"Um...thank you, sir. No one other than my friends has said that to me before." Eddie awkwardly thanked the mysterious man.

"Your friends think very well of you. I'm not surprised that they are your friends." Mr. Maturin complimented him.

"Thank you. They're even in the same homeroom class as me for seventh grade. We've been friends together since pre-K." Eddie admitted.

"I see." Mr. Maturin replied. "Are you ready to go back into class now?"

"Yeah. My breath is back to normal now, I hope I can continue on without suffering another asthma attack." Eddie said.

"Well then, good luck son. You're going to need it." Mr. Maturin bade farewell to him.

"Thank you, sir. Good luck to you too on your first day!" Eddie said to him.

"I will, son!" Mr. Maturin called out to him as he walked away from Eddie.

After Mr. Maturin was gone, Eddie took a few deep breaths before whispering to himself.

"Okay, Eddie. You got this." He told himself before going back inside the classroom.

* * *

Meanwhile, Richie was spending the last five minutes of Drama class practicing his part as an extra. His classmate for the lead role of the play was present, so he and the other replacement didn't need to practice for that part today. But both Richie and the other replacement still had to read the script just in case either of them were absent.

_RINGRINGRINGRINGRINGRING!_

"Class dismissed!" Mr. Wells called out.

While Richie was making his way to his locker, he was suddenly slammed against the wall by someone.

"Hey, geekboy!" Patrick put a hand on the wall and gripped by the shirt.

"Hey, f*ckface." Richie venomously spat at the boy in front of him. "Where's the rest of your sh*thead friends?"

"Oh, they're around. They don't know where I went though." Patrick perversely licked his lips at him.

"So, you just came here to f*ck around with me, dipsh*t?" Richie's nose wrinkled at the smell of Patrick's bad breath.

"Why not?" Patrick shrugged. "It would be fun to toy with you before your little friends come to rescue you."

Richie struggled in Patrick's grip, glaring at the lewd boy right in his beady black eyes.

"RICHIE!" A familiar voice called out to him as he heard footsteps run down the hall.

It was Eddie. He was staring with his eyes wide at both Patrick and Richie.

"Aw, if it isn't little Eddie!" Patrick mocked him as he let go of Richie and prowled towards Eddie.

Eddie stepped back but his gaze was unwavering. "Don't call me 'little'!

"Or what? You're going to spray me?" Patrick mocked Eddie and laughed.

Eddie glared at Patrick for a few seconds before Patrick suddenly stopped laughing.

Richie and Eddie were stunned, that never happened before. Patrick looked like he was in some sort of trance, his eyes glazed over.

He also walked away from the two like nothing happened until he disappeared from their sight without a single word.

Both Richie and Eddie were confused over what just happened. But Eddie could still feel a faint buzzing in his head after Patrick was gone.

Richie and Eddie stared at each other for answers before the bell rang for the start of 2nd Period.

_RINGRINGRINGRINGRINGRING!_

"Aw sh*t!" Richie cursed out loud.

"We're late for English!" Eddie moaned as they both scrambled to their lockers and got the stuff they needed.

* * *

Richie and Eddie were practically running into the classroom, huffing and puffing as they made their way towards their assigned seats.

"Mr. Tozier and Mr. Kaspbrak, what is your excuse for your lateness?" Mr. Fisher asked them sternly.

Eddie was busy taking another puff from his aspirator, so Richie had to do the explaining. "Patrick...! Attacked us in the hallway!"

"Very well, I will alert his homeroom teacher of Mr. Hockstetter's misdemeanor. You are excused. But be warned." Mr. Fisher told them.

Both Richie and Eddie let out a deep sigh of relief as they quickly got out their notebooks and copied off what was already on the board.

While everyone did the Do Now, Richie got out a blue Post-It notepad and scribbled a message on it.

He tossed the note to Bill, who was the closest to him.

Bill got the note and unfolded it.

_Dude, something weird happened in the hallway._

Bill scribbled a message on a new Post-It and threw it back to Richie.

Richie got the note and unfolded it.

_Not now, let's wait until we get into our groups together._

Richie sighed before returning back to his classwork.

After ten minutes, Mr. Fisher stood up in his chair and asked the class what they answered for their Do Now.

"Alright class, who would like to share what they wrote for their Do Now?"

Bill shyly raised his hand. "I-I-I-I would l-l-like to, Mr. Fi-Fi-Fisher."

"Ah, Mr. Denbrough! Right on schedule!" Mr. Fisher clapped his hands together. "Go on, let's see what you have to share."

Bill slowly went to the the front of the classroom and read from his notebook.

"H-H-He runs, jumps, and splashes in the rain.

He wears his ye-ye-yellow raincoat and green boots.

He rides his pa-pa-paper boat down the watery lane.

He cha-cha-chases it in hot pursuits."

"Very good, Mr. Denbrough." Mr. Fisher commended him before turning his attention back to the class. "Alright, who would like to go next?"

A few people volunteered to go up and it went by a blur.

Now everyone had to go into their groups for their poet project.

Richie, Eddie, and Bill were together in the group. The poet they chose for their project was Maya Angelou. They had to research about the poet and present it to the whole class. Each group member also had to select a poem by that poet and and write a paragraph about it. The deadline was in two weeks, so they plenty of time to finish up what they started. They also had to keep Stan covered until he came back to school on Wednesday. Stan wasn't allowed to go to school because of Jewish Holidays. His family was strict when it came traditions, especially his dad. Stan's dad was a rabbi who took the religion very seriously.

Richie and Eddie took this opportunity to tell Bill about what happened in the hallway.

"Bill. You can't believe what happened in the hallway!" Richie told them.

"What happened?" Bill asked him.

"It's Patrick! Something weird happened to him while we out in the hall!" Eddie hissed.

"S-S-Something weird? How we-we-weird?" Bill asked.

Richie and Eddie looked at each other before one of them responded.

"Like, crazy weird." Richie told him.

"He was laughing at us like an idiot before he just stopped and walked away like nothing happened." Eddie explained.

"He didn't say anything while he was walking away?" Bill questioned them.

"No." Richie shook his head. "He didn't make a sound while he walking away at all. And his eyes were...blank like he's been possessed or some creepy sh*t!"

Bill's eyes widened in shock.

"H-H-How did this happen?" Bill asked.

"We don't know, all I know is that while that was happening, my head was buzzing." Eddie said as he rubbed the side of his head.

Bill stared at Eddie like he just discovered something nerve-wrangling.

"What?" Eddie asked.

"Ed-Ed-Eddie. Did you feel anything w-w-warm go through you while that was happening?" Bill asked Eddie nervously.

"Yeah...why?" Eddie was confused about why Bill was asking him this.

"And what were you thinking about the time Pa-Patrick was there?" Bill pressed further.

"Well...obviously, I wanted Patrick to leave us alone and go back to his friends." Eddie told him awkwardly. "Why do you ask?"

Bill went silent, staring at Eddie like he was inspecting him.

Eddie couldn't help but feel a chill up his spine. "Am I sick? Do I have a brain tumor? Because, oh my f*cking G*d my mom's gonna kill me if she learns I have brain cancer! I mean, I'll have to go bald, I'll have to stay in a hospital bed for about a year, I'll even have to take treatments that will make me throw up, and-and!"

"Eddie. Calm down. Y-y-you're not sick." Bill told him.

Eddie took a puff from his aspirator and retorted. "Then what's happening to me?"

Richie looked at Bill suspiciously. "Bill?"

Bill paused for a few seconds and then spoke. "G-g-guys, I don't know how to say this. B-b-b-b-b-but something strange has been hap-hap-happening to me ever since Georgie got attacked."

"What's happening to you?" Eddie asked concernedly.

"I-I-I-I healed Georgie's arm, I even he-he-healed the cuts on my hands." Bill told them.

Richie and Eddie stared at Bill in surprise.

"I c-c-c-could even heal Georgie's nose and fix Georgie's raincoat sleeve like ma-ma-ma-ma-ma-magic." Bill said.

"That can't be possible!" Eddie shook his head in sheer disbelief.

"I know, but it-it really happened, I'll talk to you guys about this after class. We gotta continue onto our project." Bill told them.

* * *

_RINGRINGRINGRINGRINGRING!_

After English class was over, Richie and Eddie got their stuff from their lockers and met up with Bill in the janitor's room.

"G-g-g-guys." Bill said as he reached into his backpack and pulled out a broken glass bottle with only the top half.

"So..." Richie pointed at the bottle Bill was holding in his hands. "What are you going to do with that?"

"Ju-ju-just watch." Bill said as he beckoned his friends to look closer.

Bill put both of his hands on the bottle and concentrated as his hands started glow blue-green and the glass bottle repaired itself from the top to the bottom.

Richie and Eddie stared with amazement as they watched Bill's hands glow while the bottle regenerated from the top to the bottom.

"Holy sh*t..." Richie gasped as he adjusted his glasses.

After the bottle was all fixed, Bill held it out for either of the two to grab.

Slowly, Richie was the first to touch the bottle and put his fingers around the bottom.

The bottle actually was fixed! There were no cracks or glue in the bottle! It was good as new!

Eddie nervously grabbed the bottle, still not believing that it was real.

But they were interrupted by the door slamming open and an angry janitor glaring at them.

"Hey! What are you kids doing in here?! Get to class!" The janitor bellowed at them.

Bill put the glass bottle back inside his backpack and rushed his friends out the door. "C'mon, let's g-g-get out of here!"

Richie and Eddie followed Bill out of the janitor's office and to their Social Studies classroom before the bell rang.

All three of them now knew that something very strange has been happening lately besides the killer clown that just appeared a couple of days ago.


	9. Richie and Eddie

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I just edited Chapters 7, 8, 9 because I should have researched more on the Jewish Holidays. 
> 
> Stan is not supposed to be in school on October 3rd, 1988 because work is prohibited on Shimini Atzeret and Simchat Torah for Jewish people.
> 
> So I made a huge mistake, my apologies. I had to edit Stan out of these chapters, but you'll see Stan in the next chapter along with the last member of the Losers' Club.

**October 3, 1988**

After Social Studies class, the four of them headed to the boys' locker room to change for Gym class.

Richie, Eddie and Bill talked to each other while they changed.

"So Eddie, about what happened-" Richie started.

Eddie held up a finger. "NO, Richie! I don't want to hear what you're going to say!"

"Aww, c'mon Eds!" Richie poked Eddie on the shoulder. "I bet you were the one who-"

Eddie interrupted him by putting up a hand. "DON'T. SAY IT! And don't call me 'Eds', you know I HATE it when you call me that!"

"So cute! So cute!" Richie pinched Eddie's cheek and wiggled it around in his fingers.

Bill swatted Richie's fingers away from Eddie's cheek. "C-c-cut it out, Richie!"

Eddie angrily rubbed his cheek while glaring at his friends. "I don't want to get mixed up in this mumbo-jumbo bullsh*t that's been happening around Derry. I didn't make Patrick leave, I bet there was something in the air that made him go away!"

"Oh? And what is it?" Richie asked sarcastically.

"It could be the air conditioning or he might have been smoking tons of marijuana! My mom told me that a lot of drugs can do sh*t to your brain! They can make you see things, hear things, smell things, and even feel things that AREN'T EVEN THERE!" Eddie explained.

Richie shook his head. "AGAIN, I smelled his sh*tty-a** breath and there was no smell of weed, coke, or any other f*cking drug! And there was NOTHING WRONG with the air conditioning! Everyone else, including me is FINE! Again, you were the one whose head was buzzing while Patrick was acting like a f*cking zombie!"

"So what?! My head was just buzzing at the time! Nothing else!" Eddie protested.

"We saw what Bill just did to that bottle back in the janitor's closet! You must have done something to Patrick to make him go away!" Richie argued.

"I DIDN'T DO ANYTHING!" Eddie protested.

"Guys!" Bill interrupted them. "W-W-We got to get moving. Let's talk about this at lunch, ok-k-kay?"

Richie and Eddie followed Bill out of the locker room in silence.

All three of them ran to their assigned gym spots just as their gym teacher blew the whistle.

"May I have your attention, please?!" Coach Derby bellowed over the whispering students.

Everybody stopped talking and turned to the coach.

"As you all know, there is now a Dance subject in this school. I know a lot of you are going to be leaving to take this class. So by the end of the week, I want those lockers to be emptied out. Do I make myself clear?" Coach Derby asked.

"Yes, Mr. Derby." Most of the students answered audibly.

The rest of the school day went by a blur. The four of them just went by the lessons as usual. Richie stayed unusually quiet while everyone else just did what they were supposed to be doing.

And then came lunch for the sixth, seventh, and eighth graders. Richie, Eddie, and Bill sat at the same cafeteria table they always sat at every year. It was always in the far right corner of the cafeteria and it was dubbed the Losers' Table as a result.

Bill had to go up and get his lunch straight from the cafeteria. Eddie stayed behind since his mother always made the lunches for him every single day. His mom always checked if the food was rotten or expired before letting his son eat it, so Eddie was well off without the school's cafeteria food. Richie's mom had already packed lunch for Richie every single day, given how loving his mom was compared to Bill's and Eddie's parents.

Bill's parents didn't pack lunch for him anymore ever since the incident with Georgie a few days ago. His parents focused all their time and energy on Georgie to the point where they ignored Bill. So only Georgie was given the packed lunch instead.

Bill and Richie got bread pizza, nectarines, salad, and half-and-half milk on their trays before coming back to the table.

Eddie was already eating his lunch as Bill and Richie set their trays on the table.

"Sooooooo..." Richie started. "About what we talked in the locker room..."

"Look!" Eddie stopped eating and stood up from his seat. "That was just a coincidence! I didn't do anything to Patrick!"

"Oh yeah? Well for SOME reason, your head decided to buzz at the same time Patrick went into zombie-mode!" Richie protested.

"That was nothing! It was just a slight headache that's all!" Eddie defended.

"Oh yeah?! Prove it!" Richie stood up from his seat and held his arms out.

"R-R-Richie, what are you doing?" Bill asked him.

"I'm telling Eds here to prove to me that he didn't make Patrick go away!" Richie told Bill.

"Richie! I'm warning you!" Eddie said.

"So what? Do you your worst on me, Eddie Spaghetti!" Richie taunted.

Eddie seemed to give in as Bill nervously watched them both.

Eddie then sighed and picked up his plastic spork as if it was a magic wand. "Fine! I'll do it!"

He waved his spork around while unenthusiastically chanting a made-up spell. "Richie Tozier, you are now..."

"A chicken!" Eddie pointed at Richie.

Richie stood still, staring into space. Bill watched as he waited for Richie to react.

Suddenly, Richie popped his arms into his waist and puckered his mouth into a beak. "Bawk, bawk, bawk, bi-gawk!"

Richie clucked like a chicken as he moved his arms like he was doing The Chicken Dance. Richie bent down to peck at his food like a real chicken as Bill watched carefully.

Eddie didn't look impressed as Richie continued to act like a chicken at their table.

"Rich, I know you're just pretending. I didn't actually do anything to you."

But Richie continued to cluck and peck at his food like a chicken.

Eddie had enough of this and slammed his hand on the table. "I mean it, Rich!"

Richie stopped the charade and fell onto the seat laughing. "I can't believe you fell for it! You guys are even more gullible than I thought!"

While Richie continued to laugh, Bill just gave Richie a reprimanding look. Eddie on the other hand, didn't react that much since he already knew that Richie was faking.

"Hey, Bucky Beaver! What's so funny, huh?!" A very familiar voice called out to Richie.

Richie stopped laughing and turned around to see the Bowers Gang(Henry, Vic, Belch, and Patrick) staring menacingly down at Bill, Richie, and Eddie.

"Why the f*ck does that matter to you?!" Richie fired back.

Henry lunged and grabbed Richie by his collar. "Watch it, Tozier!"

"Oooooh! I'm so scared!" Richie wiggled his fingers mockingly.

Eddie and Bill stood up from their seat threateningly.

"L-l-l-l-let Richie g-g-go!" Bill yelled at Henry.

Belch stepped forward and mocked Bill's stutter by burping out, "Or-or-or-or wh-wh-wh-what are-are-are-are you-you gon-gon-gon-gonna d-d-d-do?!"

"Y-y-y-y-yeah, whatcha-cha-cha-cha gon-gon-gonna d-d-do, B-B-B-B-Billy Boy?!" Henry mocked Bill while holding onto Richie's shirt.

What no one saw coming was a closed milk carton flying through the air and hitting Henry hard on the head.

Henry let go of Richie as a result and angrily looked at the direction where the carton came from.

Eddie, Bill, Vic, Belch, and Patrick also stared in that same direction where Henry was looking.

It was the same redhead girl and the overweight transfer student from this morning!

"Oh look who we have here! It's the sl*t and the fata** who jumped us earlier!" Henry menacingly walked to the two.

The girl responded angrily, "Leave them alone!"

"Or what, girlie?" Henry suggestively stepped forward and rubbed his crotch openly.

That remark got the boy next to her really, really mad.

"AAAAAAAAAUUUUUUGGHHHHHHHHHHH!" The boy ran forward and kicked Henry Bowers IN THE GROIN.

"AHHHHHHHHHH! MY B*LLS!" Henry cried as he clutched his now-throbbing private parts.

That got everyone's attention in the cafeteria, including the lunch monitors.

As the students repeatedly chanted, "Fight, fight, fight, fight, fight!" Several lunch monitors ran in the direction the fight was coming from.

Two of the lunch monitors stepped between the redhead and transfer student and the bullies while the other stepped in front of the "Losers' Table".

"What's going here?!" One of the lunch monitors asked furiously.

Eddie was the first to respond. "Henry and his friends were bullying us first!"

Vic stepped in and pointed at the redhead. "She threw a milk carton at my friend!"

Belch followed in with, "That guy kicked my friend in the b*lls!"

Richie retorted back. "But he called them a "sl*t" and a "fata**" first!

But the lunch monitor didn't want to listen anymore. "ALRIGHT, ENOUGH!"

Everyone stayed quiet as the lunch monitor spoke. "All of you are going to stay afternoon for DETENTION. I'll notify the principal about this and he'll decide what to do with you."

"WHAT?" Both groups yelled in disbelief.

"B-B-B-B-But-" Bill started.

"NO BUTS!" The lunch monitor interrupted him before jabbing her finger out one of the exits of the cafeteria.

"I want you all to go to the principal's office with me! I don't want to hear a single word from either of you! UNDERSTAND?!" She asked angrily.

"Yes, ma'am." They answered monotonously.

The outcast group of six and the Bowers Gang walked quietly to the Principal's Office as they silently glared at each other.

By the time they got to the Principal's Office, they each were interrogated by both the Principal and Vice-Principal of the school for the rest of 7th Period and Homeroom.

Bill was the first to go since he wanted to defend his friends and two other outcasts. Everyone else waited outside while Bill was being interrogated inside the Principal's Office.

The lunch monitors also waited outside in case the groups fought again.

Bill tried to tell both the principal and vice-principal that Henry and his gang approached them first. He even told them that both the girl and transfer student were only acting in self-defense. But the principal and vice-principal weren't buying it, they said that violence was not the way to solve problems and that Bill was left with a phone call to his parents.

The girl and the transfer student went in next. The principal and vice-principal rebuked them for being the ones who used physical violence as an answer. And for that, they both had a week of detention.

Henry and Patrick went after. Both the principal and vice-principal already knew they were troublemakers so they gave them two weeks of detention right away.

Vic and Belch were also given two weeks of detention when they both went in the Principal's Office.

Richie and Eddie were merely left off with a warning and a phone call to their parents like Bill. After school, the four of them were allowed to leave.

Richie complained to his friends as they walked out the front entrance. "I can't believe it! They told on our parents even though we were the ones getting bullied by Henry and his goons!"

"That's how the adults are Derry, they are so unfair." Bill chimed in.

"Life was never fair anyways! I mean, why can't we be one of the normal kids or at least the cool kids?!" Eddie gestured to each of his friends. "LOOK AT US! Richie was blind ever since he was born! Stan's family is Jewish in a mostly-Christian town! Bill stutters a lot because of a car accident at the age of 3! AND I HAVE F*CKING ASTHMA *WHEEZE* AND I HAVE TO TAKE MY MEDICINE *WHEEZE* FROM MY F*CKING FANNY PACK! *WHEEZE*"

Eddie was hyperventilating again. He quickly dug into his fanny pack, fished his aspirator out of one of the pockets, and took a deep puff from it. The slightly minty scent and taste from the medicine helped calmed his nerves down a lot.

Richie quickly went to Eddie and grasped him for support. "It's okay, Eddie. I got you."

Richie looked at Bill and told him, "You know what? I think Eddie's right."

Bill tried to comfort Richie. "Richie, at-at-at least-"

"NO BILL!" Richie yelled. "There's a reason why we get the full brunt out of everyone else in Derry! No one respects us or at least cares about us! Not even our parents! THEY ALL HATE US!"

"Richie, at least we-we-we-we have each other. Th-th-that's what friends are for." Bill told him.

"Let's talk on the phone once we get home, alright?" Eddie patted Richie on the back.

While the three of them were walking away from school, a very familiar clown was watching them from the bushes.

* * *

Once Richie got home, his mother was still sleeping on the couch so he just took the home phone and dialed for Eddie.

He went up to his bedroom for some privacy as he waited for Eddie to answer his call.

"Richie?"

"Hey, Eddie. Sorry for bothering you back there in the locker room."

"Don't think too much about it."

"Did you talk to Bill or Stan yet?"

"No, you were the first person who called me today, why?"

"I just wanted to thank you for standing up to Patrick back in the hallway."

"It's no problem. That's what friends are for, right?"

There was a pause on Richie's side. He knew that Eddie didn't like talking about supernatural stuff but Richie couldn't help but let it out.

"Hey Eds, where do you think Bill got his powers?"

"I dunno."

"Do you think you might have them too?"

Eddie paused. Richie knew that Eddie didn't like the prospect of having supernatural powers but Richie couldn't help but ask anyways.

"Maybe? Maybe not?"

"I mean, Patrick was practically laughing his a** off until you looked at him straight in the eye."

"Yeah, I might have done something to him. But I obviously didn't mean to. I just wanted him to go away and leave us alone."

"And you did! You saved us from that sh*thead doing anything worse to the both of us!"

"I guess I did."

"Patrick must feel like sh*t right now!" Richie guffawed. "Once he finds out you hypnotized him into walking away, he must feel like a total weakling compared to you!"

"I don't think it's a good idea to tell other people about my powers. We gotta keep this a secret between the four of us! Richie, I'm serious!"

"It's not like I'm gonna tell him anyways. But he'll find out sooner or later."

Richie decided it was the best time to do a mocking impression of Patrick, but he didn't expect something shocking to happen to himself.

"He would be like," Richie started before mimicking Patrick's voice. "Whoa, did that asthma kid just tell me what to do and I did it?!"

Richie slapped a hand over his mouth as he tried to comprehend what he just did.

Eddie was also just as shocked as Richie was. Both of them clearly heard Patrick's voice and not Richie's while Richie was doing his Patrick impression.

"Richie? What did you just do?!"

"I don't know! It j-just happened! I didn't mean for it to come out like that!"

"We gotta tell Bill and Stan about this now!" Eddie alerted him. "I'll tell Stan, you call Bill!"

Richie ended the call with Eddie and then dialed Bill's home phone number.

"Ri-Ri-Richie?"

"BILL! Something weird is happening to me right now!"

"WH-WH-WH-WHAT?! You too?! What's ha-ha-happening to you?!" Bill yelled through the phone.

"I don't know! I was doing an impression of Patrick to Eddie and Patrick's voice came out of my mouth!"

"It ju-ju-just happened a few minutes ago?!"

"Yeah!"

"Me-meet me at my house!"


	10. Stan and Mike

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Before you read this chapter, I want to give you a hint on what Stan's special ability is. Stan's actor states at the part when he is asked what superpower he wishes to have: https://youtu.be/TvYqoHJyjQs

**October 3, 1988**

Stan was still at the Grace Baptist Church, sitting under the _sukkah_ (booth) and eating his meals with his family. It was a long four weeks for Stan. Stan had to stay out of school on Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, the first two days of Sukkot, today, and tomorrow. His strict father, who was a rabbi demanded to his school that he be let out during these days. The school complied and let Stan be excused with no penalty as a result of his father's authority.

Stan's friends: Bill, Richie, and Eddie visited Stan after school to see how he was doing. He always guided them through the traditions of the aforementioned Jewish holidays. He also taught them about the prayers, the customs, and the food during those celebrations. All three of them were able to visit Stan during the days he was absent from school. Except Bill couldn't attend Stan's weeklong Sukkot celebration since he caught the flu two days before start of Sukkot.

Stan didn't see Bill for roughly a week now and that bothered him. What bothered him even more was that Bill's little brother got into a deadly encounter with a clown. Richie and Eddie came to him that Saturday afternoon and told him that Bill and his family went to the hospital. Stan asked when they would return, neither Richie or Eddie knew. The next day, Richie and Eddie came to him and told him that the Denbroughs are back, safe and sound. Stan was very relieved to hear that and hoped that they were recovering well.

While Stan and his family were eating their meals, Eddie came bursting into the synagogue. Stan sat up with alarm as he watched the panting Eddie hobble over to the booth.

Eddie stopped before him before taking a big puff from his aspirator.

"Eddie?" Stan asked. "Why are you in a hurry? Where's Richie?"

Eddie held up a finger for Stan to wait so he could catch his breath.

"Richie went to Bill's house." Eddie told him while still huffing and puffing.

"Why? What for?"

"*wheeze* Something happened to him."

"Did he get hurt?"

"No."

"Then what happened?"

Eddie kneeled down and whispered in Stan's ear. "Something just happened to Richie. And not only him, something happened to me and Bill too."

Stan whispered back. "What happened to you guys?"

"Well...how should I put it? Um...we gained...superpowers." Eddie said.

Stan moved away from Eddie and looked at him like he was crazy.

"Wh...what?!"

"It's true! Look! I didn't want to believe it either! But it really happened to the three of us! We'll show you when I get back!" Eddie furiously whispered.

"Mr. Eddie, are you coming back to enjoy today's festivities?" One of Stan's aunts called out to him.

"Don't worry, Aunt Matea!" Eddie said as he made his way out of the synogogue. "I'll be back and I will be bringing the rest of Stan's friends with me!"

"Okay! Have a safe trip!" She said as Eddie left the synagogue.

Stan continued to eat his food while contemplating over the well-being of his friends. He knew that his friends could be a little crazy but he didn't expect them to go over board. Eddie was the asthmatic hypochondriac who rambles about hazards whenever he gets stressed, Richie was the Trashmouth who wouldn't stop making vulgar jokes at inappropriate times, and Bill had a big brother complex and a hero complex.

But now from what Eddie was telling him, Stan was worried that his friends went insane. Stan didn't believe in magical or paranormal phenomena, unlike his friends. Stan was more rooted in reality and enjoyed studying real-life birds. He loved birds, from their beautiful plumage, wings and fascinating behavior.

Fortunately for him, Jewish Holidays didn't restrict him from bird-watching. The only things that weren't allowed on Jewish holidays was working, going to school, driving, writing, and using electrical devices.

Stan sighed as he finished eating his food. After he was done, he helped his family and friends clean the table before praying farewell to the booth.

On this particular day, they prayed for rain in Hebrew and prayed for G-d to remember their deceased relatives. Stan still wasn't very fluent in Hebrew, but he could read the language okay.

After that, he went outside to get some fresh air with his family's permission. He breathed in the crisp autumn air and stared at the birds flying by. Stan sat on the bench and watched the dead leaves blow away in the wind as he worried about his friends.

Looking back at the synagogue, Stan thought it would be best to pay his friends a visit. Without riding his bike, he ran to Bill's house as fast as he could.

* * *

When Stan finally reached Bill's house, he rang the doorbell and Bill's mother opened it.

"Stanley Uris! What brings you here?"

"I'm here to see my friends. May I come in, Mrs. Denbrough?"

In response, she smiled and opened the door a bit more to let Stan through.

When Stan entered the house, a very familiar little boy skittered up the stairs.

"Billy! It's your friend!" His brother said.

"Bill!" Stan called as he went up the staircase.

"Stan, yo-yo-you're here!" Bill said in surprise as Richie and Eddie ran to him.

"STAN!" Richie and Eddie yelled simultaneously as they pulled him inside Bill's bedroom and closed the door shut.

"Guys? What's going on?" Stan asked worriedly as he looked at each of his friends.

Eddie was the first to respond. "Okay, look! Remember I told you at the church that we have superpowers?"

Stan stared awkwardly. "...Yeah, why?"

Eddie rambled off. "Well, OBVIOUSLY we have no idea HOW OR WHERE we got them! The only thing we know is that Bill's manifested last Saturday at the hospital, mine manifested before 2nd Period at school, and Richie's manifested when we were talking on the phone! We still don't know what caused it and whether or not we're gonna stay like that forever! And if our parents find out, they might send us to the FBI or something-" "Eddie." "then they would experiment on us like lab animals-" "Eddie." "And what if they cut our bodies open-"

"EDDIE!" Bill yelled in exasperation.

"WHAT?!" Eddie yelled back.

"Eddie, we're no-no-not going to stay like this forever, we'll find the reason behind it an-an-and put an end to it." Bill said.

"So what do you think caused it?" Stan asked.

"Georgie and I sa-sa-saw a man in the diner with glowing blue-green eyes on Sunday. He-he-he-he was staring at us for so-so-some reason. He didn't have fo-fo-fo-food on his table and no-no-no-no else seemed to notice hi-hi-hi-him."

"Glowing blue-green eyes?" Eddie asked suddenly.

"Y-y-yeah, why Eddie?" Bill asked him.

"Because I saw him during Health class, he had strange glowing eyes I've never seen before in my entire life. He just talked to me, asked if I was okay, gave me some advice. He didn't mention anything out of the ordinary." Eddie told them.

"So yo-yo-you met him too? Who-who-who was he?" Bill asked surprised.

"He said he was Mr. Maturin, the new Latin teacher for our school." Eddie said.

"New teachers?!" Stan cried out. "How come no one told me about this?!"

"Sorry, Stan. It was just announced today. They hadn't told us before." Richie said.

"So who are the new teachers?" Stan asked cautiously.

"Mr. Maturin is the new Latin teacher and Mr. Gray is the new Dance teacher." Richie filled in for Stan.

"Okay so, Latin and Dance are the two new subjects taught at our school?" Stan asked.

"Yep. We gotta decide if we want to take either of the classes by the end of the week. They start next Monday." Richie informed Stan.

"And we can't take Latin and another Foreign Language class at the same time. For example, if you are currently taking Spanish but want to take Latin, you gotta drop Spanish and take Latin instead. Same thing goes for Dance class, if you are currently taking Phys Ed class but want to go to Dance, you gotta drop Phys Ed for Dance." Eddie said.

"That's it?" Stan asked to be sure.

"Yep, that's it!" Richie said.

"Okay, I'm thinking of dropping Phys Ed so I can take Dance." Stan said before he asked his friends. "What about you guys?"

"We-We-We're all thinking doing the sa-sa-sa-sa-same. But I wan-wan-wanna take Latin." Bill said.

"Great! Then we can practice dancing together! To make sure we get the routines right!" Stan happily suggested.

"But where would we practice?" Eddie asked.

The four of them went silent, not sure of how to deal with the problem.

"We can go prac-practice backyard." Bill suggested.

"But what if it's raining?" Eddie asked.

"Then I-I-I-I guess the living room." Bill answered.

"So um..." Stan started awkwardly. "Back to the topic on hand, what are your..."superpowers"?"

"Oh that!" Eddie said. "Well..."

Richie answered for him. "Bill has the ability to fix anything he touches, Eddie can hypnotize people, and I can change my own voice however I want."

"So...this isn't roleplay?" Stan asked, unsure.

"No-no-no, it's real!" Bill said. "Here, let m-m-m-me show you!"

Bill took a piece of blank paper and ripped it into shreds.

Stan watched carefully as Bill put both of his hands on the paper shreds and concentrated.

Bill's hands glowed a slight blue-green as the shreds lifted and danced together in a tornado formation. The shreds reassembled themselves to where they were before fixing themselves together like glue.

"Whoa!" Stan couldn't believe what he was seeing and carefully lifted up the newly-fixed paper. There were no folds or tear marks in the paper, it looked brand new!

"Let me try! Let me try!" Richie exclaimed before clearing his throat.

What Stan didn't expect to hear from Richie's mouth was Eddie's voice! And there were faint blue-green soundwaves coming from his mouth!

"Hi, I'm Eddie Kaspbrak. I have a b*tchy mom at home who is just as big as a humpback whale! Yeah!" Richie said in Eddie's voice and fistpumped.

"BEEP BEEP RICHIE!" Bill and Stan called him out.

Obviously, Eddie was not amused by Richie's acidic comments towards his mother. "Take that back, Richie!"

"Oh yeah?" Richie smiled a sly smile at him. "Make me!"

Eddie looked at Richie right in the eyes and Richie's expression slackened.

Both Bill and Stan could see that Eddie's eyes were glowing blue-green and they were streaming into Richie's eyes.

"Now apologize." Eddie sternly commanded Richie.

Richie's eyes were blank but Richie spoke, "I'm sorry for insulting your mother, Eddie."

Eddie released his mental grasp on Richie and Richie snapped out of his puppetlike trance.

"Whoa!" Richie shook his head. "What just happened?!"

"Eddie just made you apologize to him." Stan told Richie.

"Whoa?! Really?! I KNEW IT!" Richie congratulated himself.

"NO RICHIE! This is serious! You guys somehow got superpowers and there is no explanation to HOW you got them! Don't you just want them to go away?! So you can have a normal life?!" Stan frantically asked.

"Yeah guys, Stan's right." Eddie said. "I don't want to stay like this forever."

"Eh...I'm fine with the way I am now. Superpowers are cool!" Richie said.

"R-R-R-Richie!" Bill scolded him.

"All right! All right! Je***! Don't be such a buzzkill!" Richie groaned.

Stan looked at the clock and saw that he'd been away for one hour. "Oh no!"

Bill, Richie, and Eddie knew what Stan's expression meant and out of Bill's bedroom behind him.

Bill's mom ignored them as she continued playing the piano and Bill's little brother watched the boys go out the front door.

Bill, Richie, and Eddie rode on their bikes while Stan ran on the sidewalk behind them back to the Grace Baptist Church.

The Church was just down Witcham Street, so it wouldn't take long to reach it.

But while they were on their way back, they came across a person riding on his bike furiously towards them.

The person was covered in layers of fabric from head to toe. They were also obscuring his face, making it hard for him to see where he was going.

Richie and Eddie cried with alarm as they saw the person barreling towards them. "OH SH*T!" "NONONONONONONONONO!" "BILL LOOK OUT!" "OUT OF THE WAY!"

Before the mysterious person could bump into the trio, Stan frantically threw out his hands and yelled, "STOP!"

What happened next surprised everyone. An invisible force pushed the mysteriously-clothed person back and he landed on the ground with a muffled "oomph!" The bike also clattered on top of the boy too, adding more pain to that person.

"OH MY G*D! ARE YOU OKAY?!" Eddie yelled.

Bill, Richie, and Eddie dropped their bikes in alarm and ran to the injured stranger.

Bill and Eddie helped the poor guy up while Richie and Stan lifted the bike off him.

Before either of them could ask the guy what was going on, a familiar car honk sounded.

"OH NO! Not these sh*theads again!" Richie complained as his friends and the mysterious guy turned their attention towards the sound.

It was the Bowers' Gang again, this time they were in their signature Plymouth Fury. All four of them had slimy smirks on their faces.

"Well, if isn't Stuttering Bill, Beaver Boy, Asthma Kid, and The Jew!" Henry exclaimed.

"F-F-F-F-F-F*CK OFF, BOWERS!" Bill yelled angrily.

"YEAH! F*CK OFF, A**HOLES!" Richie flipped his middle fingers at them.

"Or you're gonna do WHAT?" Vic asked mockingly.

Without hesitating, Eddie furiously marched up to them and locked eyes with all four of the Bowers Gang.

"GO AWAY." Eddie commanded, his eyes currently blazing a bright blue-green.

In an instant, they went into a daze and then drove away from the five without a single word.

Eddie felt a little dizzy after forcing the entire Bowers' Gang to leave them alone and was about to fall.

"I got you Eddie!" Richie said as he, Bill, and Stan caught him.

The stranger looked shocked by what just happened and went to them.

"What did you just do?!" The guy asked.

Bill, Richie, Eddie, and Stan froze. Someone outside their group had just witnessed one of them using their powers. They stayed silent, trying to come up with an excuse.

"Is it happening to you too?" The guy asked.

Their heads shot up in surprise.

"Huh?" Richie cocked his head to the side.

"That glow! I saw your eyes glowing while you were hypnotizing the Bowers' Gang!" The guy said to Eddie.

"Wait?" Eddie said. "You've seen that glow before?"

The guy nodded. "I have. My hands glow when I touch someone or something."

"Wait, you got superpowers too?!" Richie asked excitedly.

"If you can call it that." The guy replied as he took one of his gloves off and revealed a dark-skinned hand.

He went up to Bill and was about to put his hand on his.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! What are you doing?!" Stan tried to stop him from doing something dangerous to his friend.

"Don't worry, it won't affect him. It only affects me when I touch him." The stranger assured him.

The four of them carefully watched as his hand touched Bill's and it glowed blue-green. Bill's body was also glowing a bit as the stranger fell into a daze.

Stan, Richie, and Eddie cautiously checked Bill as the stranger held onto his hand.

"...Bill?" Eddie asked, still concerned for his friend.

"G-Guys, I'm fi-fine. Still conscious." Bill reassured them.

After a few seconds, the stranger snapped back to reality and let go Bill.

"What did you just do to him?" Stan asked the stranger suspiciously.

"I only learned his history by touching him, nothing to worry about." He answered promptly.


	11. Stan and Mike

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As you all might know, I am also one of the people who wasn't pleased with the way IT 2017 handled Mike Hanlon's role in the movie. Mike Hanlon was the sole historian for the Losers' Club in the book and the miniseries. But Mike's role in the 2017 movie has been unfairly ripped away from him and pasted onto Ben(the club's bookworm and architect).
> 
> So I gave Mike the power of psychometry so he can fit in the historian role with Ben(who has the power of retrocognition). By doing so, both can see the history of the past and provide historical information for the Losers' Club.

**October 3, 1988**

"S-s-s-s-s-so, what did you learn about me?" Bill asked him.

"I know your name is Bill Denbrough. You have a stutter. You are the older brother of George Denbrough, the one who was almost killed by that clown from that storm drain." The boy pointed at said storm drain. "Your power manifested last Saturday by healing your brother's arm while you two were sleeping together."

Bill, Stan, Richie, and Eddie jaws dropped.

"Holy sh*t, dude!" Richie exclaimed as he adjusted his glasses a bit. "So you read people like a book just by touching them?!"

"That's right." The boy nodded as he put his glove back on. "I can know information about anyone and anything inside and out just by touching them."

Richie decided to ask an inappropriate question. "Even people's sex life?"

"RICHIE!" Bill, Eddie, and Stan screamed at him.

"What? I'm just curious!" Richie said.

The boy didn't seem to be fazed by Richie's question and instead introduced himself.

"I'm Mike. Mike Hanlon." He held out a gloved hand for either of the four to shake.

The four of them stared at Mike before Stan was the first to shake his hand. "Stan. Stanley Uris."

Bill went next. "Nice to me-me-me-meet you Mike. I'm Bill, o-o-o-o-of course you already know who I am."

"I'm Eddie Kaspbrak." Eddie shook Mike's hand and then quickly used hand sanitizer from his fanny pack.

"Richie Tozier. Nice to meet ya!" Richie shook Mike's hand hard while smiling a cheeky grin.

After they were done with the introductions, Mike thanked the four of them. "Thank you for saving me from the Bowers' Gang."

Eddie shrugged. "It's no problem, they bully pretty much everyone in town."

"I'm not surprised." Mike said. "I've never seen them act nice towards anyone else before."

"Y-y-y-y-yeah, th-they keep trying to g-g-get under people's skin i-in any way they can. Ev-ev-ev-even if it means mak-mak-making fun of someone's ra-ra-ra-race." Bill agreed.

"I know how that feels." Mike lamented.

All five of them shared a moment of silence before Mike asked them, "So where are you heading off to?"

"We gotta go back to the Grace Baptist Church." Stan pointed at the church just a several meters away from them. "It's another Jewish holiday today, so my family is waiting for us to come today. You wanna come?"

Mike thought for a moment before responding, "If my grandfather says "yes", then I'll come!"

"Great!" Richie gave a thumbs-up while getting onto his bike. "See you there!"

Mike and the boys waved goodbye at each as they parted ways.

Before Mike rode away, he looked behind him and watched as the boys scrambled inside the church.

He smiled silently and then rode his way back to the farm.

* * *

When Mike reached his farm, he went into his house and his granddad was cooking lunch.

Mike hesitated before asking his grandfather. "Hey, uh...grandpa?"

"What is it?" His grandfather asked.

 _C'mon Mike, you got this!_ Mike took a deep breath and asked, "Can I go to the Grace Baptist Church?"

"...For what?"

"I've met some...acquaintances who want me to celebrate with them."

"What holiday?" His grandfather pressed further.

"It's...it's a Jewish holiday."

"Who are these 'acquaintances' you speak of?"

"They're really nice people who saved me from Henry and his gang." Mike answered honestly.

His grandfather turned the stove off and then looked at Mike in the eye.

Mike sat there nervously as he waited for his grandfather's response.

"...Are any of them Black?" His grandfather asked.

 _Oh no..._  Mike knew that his grandfather wanted him to make friends with other Black people. But the problem is, none of the people he just met were Black. None.

Mike sweated a bit as he tried to think of an appropriate answer to his grandfather's question.

"Um...no. But they never made fun of me because I'm Black."

Luckily for Mike, his grandfather decided to let this one slide. "Very well, how many 'acquaintances' do you have?"

"...Four." Mike answered.

"Then you're in luck, that's enough people to defend you from Henry and his goons. You can go. But if I see you bloodied up and bruised when you come back home, then you can say to your 'acquaintances' goodbye!" His grandfather told him.

"Thanks, grandpa!" Mike said as he ran out the front door and got onto his bike.

Mike felt oddly exhilarated as he rode back to town, he hadn't been this excited before. Ever since his parents died in a fire when he was just a baby, he shut off the idea of showing his feelings to people. He couldn't even try to emotionally connect with his remaining relative since he was gruff and pragmatic.

He never had any friends because of his "outsider" status. Even when he tried to reach out to a few kids his age, they either just ignored him or avoided him like the plague. Due to his horrible childhood experience, Mike decided it was best to shut other people out and stay away from them. He thought he would never, ever make friends with anyone due to how "abnormal" he was.

Even worse, Mike woke up last Saturday morning to find that he could now see the history of anything or anybody that touches his bare skin. He had to wear gloves and lots of long clothing from now on to avoid seeing unnecessary visions of certain things and people.

And that was not the only weird thing that happened that morning, Mike had also woken up with a large drawstring pouch sitting beside his bed. The pouch was dark teal and made out of thick, velvety material. The drawstrings were a dark green and half an inch in width. Inside the pouch was hundreds of silver coins that were a bit bigger than a quarter, but a lot heavier. The silver coins all looked the same, on the front they had a picture of a giant turtle swimming in a celestial background and holding the Earth on its shell. On the back, the coins also had a celestial background but there was the number '7' engraved right in the middle. Mike then got out a scale to weigh the contents of the coin pouch. It weighed 54.42 pounds in total.

Mike had wondered how the coin pouch got into his room in the first place. He highly doubt that his grandfather would give him a large sum of money at his age. Reluctantly, he decided to use his newfound power to trace the pouch's whereabouts. He touched the pouch with his bare fingers and saw a vision of a robed figure placing the pouch into his room and then touching his forehead while he was sleeping.

Mike couldn't see who that figure was because his hood obscured his features in the dark, but he saw a pair of glowing blue-green eyes. He tried to search all over town for the past few days to find the mysterious figure, but it was no use. The mysterious figure was nowhere to be seen.

While Mike just finished searching for the robed figure, he was chased by the Bowers' Gang again. He got on his bike and tried to pedal away down Witcham Street until he almost hit three boys, who were also riding on their bikes.

Mike screamed at himself to stop, but it was too late. He hadn't hit his brakes on time and was about to crash into the three until an invisible force pushed him back.

He instantly knew that one of the boys had supernatural powers like him, but he didn't know which. However, he later found out that ALL FOUR had supernatural powers of some sort! When the Bowers' Gang caught up to him, the smallest boy in the group used his mind-control ability to force them away. And by touching the stuttering boy, Mike found out he could restore anything to its previous state. Mike was curious to see what were the supernatural abilities of the glasses-boy and the Jewish boy, he knew one of them had telekinetic powers of some sort. But he would have to meet them again if he wanted to find out.

* * *

Back at the Grace Baptist Church, all of Stan's family members were preparing dinner for today's evening. Stan, Bill, Richie, and Eddie were talking furiously in Stan's father's office.

After the incident with Mike and the Bowers' Gang, Richie kept bugging Stan that he had supernatural powers too. Stan kept vehemently defending himself, stating he doesn't have any "superpowers" of any sort. Bill and Eddie tried to stop Richie from harassing Stan, but Richie kept on yabbering about.

"Richie! For the last time, I don't have any superpowers! ONLY you guys do!" Stan told Richie.

"I don't remember either one of us three saying we have more than one superpower!" Richie argued. "Let's recap, shall we?"

Richie pointed at Eddie first. "Eddie can control minds!"

Richie pointed at Bill second. "Bill can fix stuff instantly!"

Richie pointed at himself third. "And I can change my voice into whatever I want!"

"Well, what about Mike Hanlon?!" Stan asked. "He has superpowers too!"

"WELL, Mike didn't say he can move stuff around with his mind! He only said he can see the history behind anyone and anything he touches!" Richie said.

"But that doesn't necessarily mean I have any superpowers! Nothing strange has happened to me! Only you guys!" Stan protested.

"But us three weren't trying to use our powers when we almost bumped into Mike! We only yelled at Mike to stop! So that leaves YOU, the one who got his power last!" Richie pointed out.

"Richie, CUT IT OUT!" Bill scolded Richie. "There's no sub-sub-substantial proof that Stan has superpowers! We did-did-did-didn't see him gl-gl-gl-gl-glow blue-green or anything!"

"Yeah, Rich! Stan has no superpowers! Stop telling him he does!" Eddie said.

"Oh yeah?" Richie said. "Prove it. Try moving something with your mind!"

"WHAT?!" Stan, Bill, and Eddie yelled.

"You heard me, prove to me that you didn't make Mike and his bike fall back!" Richie challenged Stan.

Stan and Richie stared at each for what seemed like a few minutes, before one of them spoke.

"Fine, I'll prove it." Stan said as he looked for an object to move.

Stan's eyes laid on the creepy flute-lady painting hung on the wall in front of them.

Reluctantly, Stan held up a shaking hand at the painting and tried to make it move.

Stan didn't feel anything happening as his friends carefully watched. His right arm was still trembling as he tried to focus.

Stan had always been afraid of the flute-lady in the painting, her body was abstract and skinny like Edvard Munch's The Scream. It was really making it hard for him to concentrate.

It seemed to take a long time for something to happen UNTIL THE FLUTE-LADY WINKED!

All four of them were taken aback.

"Did that creepy lady in the painting just wink?!" Richie asked.

"I didn't do anything yet!" Stan said, still trying to focus.

Eddie's breathing rate rapidly increased and he reached for his aspirator.

Bill and Richie stepped forward a bit to the painting, trying to see if there were any more reactions.

But that proved to be a big mistake. A horrible mistake.

THE FLUTE-LADY SUDDENLY POPPED HALFWAY OUT OF THE PAINTING, SHRIEKING LOUDLY AT THE FOUR!

Bill and Richie quickly scrambled back before the lady could swipe at them.

"HOLY F*CK!" Richie swore as watched the painting landed face-first on the floor.

The flute-lady's upper body was out of the picture and was scrambling towards the boys with her spindly arms, dragging the frame with her.

The boys clung onto each other as the woman rapidly approached them.

Stan felt a big surge of warm energy went through him along with adrenaline and he reacted immediately. Stan threw his hands out and an invisible force pushed the lady back onto the wall.

The lady landed with a loud shriek and all of the boys ran out of the office as quickly as possible before slamming the door shut behind them.

* * *

Mike finally arrived at the Grace Baptist Church and was about to enter until a group of frightened boys came tumbling into him out of said church.

Mike saw it was the same boys he just met a half-hour ago. Before he could ask them what was wrong, Eddie beat him to it.

"Mike! Scary lady! Painting just came to life! Tried to get us!" Eddie sputtered as he took a big puff from his aspirator.

"What are you taking about?" Mike asked, bewildered. "What did you see in there?!"

"W-w-w-w-we s-s-s-s-" Bill tried to answer.

"We just saw a creepy-a** lady come out of the painting and try to claw us!" Richie blurted out.

"How did it happen?" Mike asked.

"Richie told me to prove that I don't have superpowers, but the painting came to life somehow! I had nothing to do with it! I never tried to bring the painting to life! I SWEAR!" Stan tried his best to explain the situation to Mike.

"Let me see the painting." Mike said.

The boys led Mike back into Stan's father's office and showed him the painting. The painting was back on the wall where it originally was and the flute-lady was back to her original position.

Mike tried to get closer to the painting to examine it, but the other boys stopped him from getting any closer.

"DON'T!" Stan warned Mike as he pulled him back.

"It'll claw you if you get any closer!" Eddie warned him.

"But I need to see what happened with the painting. Just let me touch it." Mike said as he slid his right glove off. "If the painting comes to life, just pull me back right away, got it?"

The four boys nervously nodded as Mike turned his attention back to the painting. "Okay, here we go."

Mike touched the picture frame of the painting and saw a vision of the flute-lady winking. He then heard the boys exclaiming in surprise and saw the lady coming out of the painting. The flute-lady tried to advance on the boys but Stan telekinetically sent it flying against the wall. Frustrated, the flute-lady put itself back on the wall and went back to its original position.

Jerking his fingers away from the frame, Mike stumbled back and the boys went to him.

"Wh-wh-wh-what's wrong, Mi-Mi-Mike?! What did you see?!" Bill asked.

As Mike slid his glove back on, he told the boys what he just saw, "The lady came to life on its own. Don't worry, none of you caused it to happen."

Stan let out a huge sigh of relief, he already knew that he wasn't the one responsible for bringing the flute-lady to life.

"So what did?" Eddie asked.

"My vision tells me that the flute-lady you just encountered ISN'T from this painting." Mike answered, his face grim.

"So what was it?" Stan asked.

"An evil thing." Mike answered in short terms.

"S-s-s-s-so, like a de-de-de-demon?" Bill asked.

"Something, like that. But I'll have to touch it if we can find where it came from and what it's doing here." Mike said.

"But that means we would have to get close to it! I don't like this idea, guys!" Stan said fearfully.

"Yeah, I don't want to end up dead or even worse, eaten alive." Eddie agreed with Stan.

"B-b-b-but g-g-guys! This is our only ch-ch-chance! I m-m-mean we have superpowers given to us for a rea-reason!" Bill urged the group. "If we stick together as team, we'll take down the monster! And save the rest of Derry! Five policemen are de-de-de-dead now! If we don't stop it soon, many more people will die!"


	12. Stan and Mike

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> FINALLY, this chapter is WHERE ALL of the SEVEN KIDS meet for the first time and face against IT for the first time!

**October 3, 1988**

"HOW THE H*LL are we gonna catch the f*cking monster though?!" Richie asked.

Bill answered right away. "Ed-Eddie and/o-or Stan can hold the mon-monster down with their powers, while you and I-I-I-I will go over grab it. Mike can go and touch it to fi-fi-find out about it."

"I'll go get my bolt gun and my ammo just to be safe." Mike added.

"You have a gun?!" Stan asked Mike in shock.

"Yeah, I'm allowed to use it. I can bring it with me to take the monster down." Mike said.

"So when and where are we all meeting?" Eddie asked.

"W-W-W-Wait until everyone goes to sleep, then we can meet outside my house." Bill said.

"So we're sneaking out after 7 in the evening?! Bill, that's insane! The killer clown is still on the loose and we're chasing a monster in the middle of the night?!" Stan exclaimed.

"You can ch-ch-choose whether to co-co-come or not, but I'm still going." Bill said determinedly.

"Me too." Mike joined in.

Stan, Richie, and Eddie looked at each other and sighed.

"Fine, I'll go." Richie said.

"Same here." Eddie replied.

"Ditto that." Stan responded.

"Good, we'll meet out-out-outside my house at 11pm sh-sh-sharp and we'll dis-dis-discuss the plan." Bill said.

For the rest of the late-afternoon and early evening, the five of them continued to celebrate Shimini Atzeret inside the Grace Baptist Church. They ate the dinner outside the booth, did the ceremonial dances with Stan's relatives, watched Stan and his family pray for rain, and watched the Jewish women light the candles.

When it was 6:30pm, the five of them parted ways and returned to their homes.

* * *

It was almost 11pm and all of Stan's relatives were asleep in his house. Stan carefully crawled out of bed and got dressed before riding his bike to Bill's house.

Stan was the first to come to Bill's house, then Richie, then Eddie, and lastly Mike.

As Mike promised, he brought his bolt gun and his bolts with him. He was decked out in layers of clothing and gloves as usual.

"I-i-i-is everyone ready?" Bill asked.

"Ready as I'll ever be." Richie said.

"Then let's go ba-ba-back to the church. W-w-we should find the monster th-th-there." Bill said.

The five of them biked all the way to the Grace Baptist Church and dropped their bikes on the grass. They then ran to the front door and waited for Bill's orders.

"All five of us are go-go-going to go in there. Mike and I wi-will be in the fro-fro-front. The rest of yo-yo-you will be in the back." Bill said.

"Sounds like a good plan to me." Richie says.

Bill put his hand on the knob and tried to open the door. It was locked.

"Sh*t, it's locked. Stan, do you have the k-k-key?" Bill asked.

"Sorry, Bill. My dad keeps in hidden away somewhere." Stan replied with a dejected expression on his face.

"Don't worry, I came prepared." Richie pulled out a hairpin and put it into the keyhole.

Richie tried to use the hairpin as a lockpin like he saw in the movies. He tried to jiggle the pin back-and-forth, but it was no use. Richie's hairpin came out mangled and heavily bent.

"Wait, I think I got a solution." Stan went in front of Bill and Richie.

Stan put his hand on top of the keyhole, palm flat. The doorknob glowed a faint blue-green as Stan made the door unlock itself.

"Way to go, Stan!" Richie whispered excitedly as Bill opened the door.

Bill, Richie, and Eddie opened their flashlights as they shut the door behind them. They all stayed in perfect formation as they crept up the stairs to Stan's father's office.

"Re-re-remember not to make too much noise." Bill reminded his friends in a low voice.

Stan, Richie, and Eddie stayed outside the office while Bill and Mike kept their eyes on the painting. Mike had just loaded his bolt gun and was aiming it at the flute-lady, just in case it came to life and attacked them. Bill kept his flashlight trained on the painting in from of them, making sure not to get ambushed by the lady in the dark.

Stan faced away from his friends in order to make sure no one else was entering the synagogue. Eddie guarded the right staircase while Richie guarded the left.

It was about 20 minutes already and still nothing weird happened. But none of the boys were letting their guard down, Bill kept his flashlight trained on the painting. He switched his arms in order to get the blood flowing back into his them. And he already had spare batteries in case the flashlight ran out of battery.

The boys waited until 10 minutes later before one of them complained.

"Guys, nothing's happening. Let's just go back home and sleep." Stan told his friends.

"Stan's right, it's been 30 minutes already and nothing's happening. Let's just call it a day and go home." Eddie said, looking at his watch.

Sighing, Bill turned to his friends outside while keeping the flashlight trained on the painting.

"Y-y-y-y-yeah. Maybe you're right, c'mon let's me-me-meet outside." Bill told his friends.

Mike locked the office door shut behind them as they made their way outside the church.

* * *

Unbeknownst to them, the monster the boys were looking for was crouched on the church roof.

As the boys locked the front door, they went to their bikes.

"Well, at least we're all alive and in piece." Richie said to them.

"But th-th-the monster is still so-so-somewhere out there. How long are we gon-gonna let roam loose?" Bill asked.

"It's not worth it, Bill! The police can handle the monster! We're just a bunch of kids who don't know what they're getting into!" Stan said.

"But the mon-monster only showed itself to us! And the police are too busy handling the clown!" Bill protested.

"But what can we do?! We just got our powers and we're not ready to use them yet! And besides, we don't have any weapons besides Mike's bolt gun to fight the monster!" Stan argued.

"M-m-my father owns a pis-pis-pistol and my parents bou-bou-bought me a slingshot for my b-b-b-birthday." Bill said.

"But where can we practice aiming?" Stan asked.

The boys suddenly heard a loud shriek coming from the roof and turned around.

There was a stone devil being wrestled by two kids, a redhead girl and an overweight boy.

The five boys stared in shock as the two continued to wrestle with the animated stone creature.

The stone devil kept trying to shake the two off as it shrieked loudly in the middle of the night.

"G-g-guys! We gotta help them!" Bill said as he ran back to the church and tried to climb up the walls.

"Guys! Give me a lift!" Bill cried out to his friends.

Eddie heaved Bill onto his shoulders, Richie heaved them both over his shoulders, and Mike was at the bottom holding all three of them. Stan was watching them, making sure they didn't topple over.

When Bill finally made it onto the roof, he turned to Mike and yelled, "Mike, throw me the gun!"

Mike complied and threw his bolt gun over to Bill.

Bill treaded carefully onto the rooftop as the redhead and transfer student continued to hang onto the stone devil. When Bill got close enough to them, he shot the devil in the right wing.

The creature wailed in pain and pushed the three off the roof.

"BILL!" Richie, Eddie, Stan, and Mike screamed as they ran in to try to catch the three.

Stan only managed to slow their fall a bit with his telekinetic power while Richie, Eddie, and Mike caught the three but was knocked off their feet.

When all seven of them turned their attention back to the church roof, the monster was gone without a trace. But what mattered was that Bill managed to cripple the devil and that all seven of them were safe.

"You g-g-g-guys okay?" Bill asked the redhead and the overweight kid.

"We're fine, thanks for saving us back there!" The overweight kid said.

"You're wel-wel-welcome." Bill said before asking them. "What are you two doing in the middle of the night?"

"I saw that you were in danger, so we had to help." The girl replied.

"B-b-b-b-but how did you know we were in danger?" Bill asked.

"I can see into the future." She replied.

Bill's, Richie's, Eddie's, Stan's, and Mike's jaws dropped.

"NO. WAY! You've got superpowers too?!" Richie asked, clearly shocked.

"Yeah, me and Ben somehow got them yesterday morning. We thought we were the only ones until you showed up." The girl said.

"We thought the same." Mike replied.

"Looks like we're not alone in this after all!" The redhead girl cheerfully smiled. "I'm Beverly Marsh, nice to meet you!"

The transfer student introduced himself next. "I'm Ben Hanscom, I just moved here this summer."

"N-n-n-nice to meet you, Ben. I'm Bill D-D-Denbrough." Bill introduced himself before his friends followed.

"I'm Richie Tozier."

"I'm Mike Hanlon."

"I'm Eddie Kaspbrak."

"And I'm Stanley Uris." Stan finished.

"So you guys are already friends?" Beverly asked.

"Ac-ac-actually, Richie, Eddie, Stan, and I ha-have been cl-cl-close friends since we we-we-were little." Bill gestured to his childhood friends. "We just be-be-befriended Mike today when we sav-sav-saved him from the Bow-Bow-Bowers' Gang. What about you?"

"We just became friends yesterday after a run-in with a look-a-like of me." Beverly said.

"She saved me from that girl who was pretending to be Beverly at the house on Neibolt Street." Ben said.

"Pretending to be you?" Stan asked, confused.

"Yeah, she looked exactly like Beverly, but she was not Beverly. When I tried to help the real Beverly, the fake one just stopped me and her hair was now orange, her eyes were now yellow, and her teeth turned sharp!" Ben elaborated.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!" Richie exclaimed. "So you're saying there's another monster on the loose now?! We just met the creepy flute-lady, we also just met that stone devil, and you're telling me that you met a fake-Beverly yesterday?!"

"Yeah, why?" Ben asked.

"It means we got a bunch of f*cking monsters on the loose! Don't you see?! With the police busy trying to catch the killer clown in the sewers, WHO IS GONNA DEAL WITH THE MONSTERS RUNNING LOOSE AROUND DERRY?!" Richie screamed.

"Richie, we-we-we-we're the only ones who s-s-saw those monsters s-s-so far. We're the only ones wh-wh-who can stop them." Bill said.

"But HOW are we gonna fight these monsters?! All we got is Mike's bolt gun, your dad's pistol, and your slingshot with no ammo!" Richie complained.

"But th-that's not the only thing w-w-we have. We have these pow-pow-powers given to us, remember?" Bill said to Richie.

"Yeah, but we just got them. And how are we supposed to use them to fight?!" Richie asked.

"Y-y-y-y-you said that you can ch-ch-change your voice to whatever you w-w-w-want, right?" Bill asked.

"Yeah, why?" Richie said as he adjusted his glasses in confusion.

"Then c-c-c-can you m-m-m-make your voice r-r-really loud enough to sh-sh-shatter your enemies' ear-ear-eardrums?" Bill asked.

"I never actually tried, but I'll give it a shot when the time comes." Richie said.

"Then th-th-there you go." Bill said to Richie before turning to the rest of the crew.

"Eddie, you pr-pr-proved earlier with the B-B-B-Bowers Gang that you can hyp-hypnotize more than one-one-one person, right?" Bill asked Eddie.

"Yeah, why?" Eddie asked.

"Tr-tr-tr-tr-try making the mon-mon-monsters attack ea-ea-ea-each other. Th-th-that way, they can wea-wea-weaken each other out at the sa-sa-same time." Bill advised Eddie.

"Okay, I'll try." Eddie accepted.

"Stan, like you did ear-ear-earlier with the flute-lady from the pai-pai-pai-painting, keep the en-enemy back as fa-fa-fa-far as possible." Bill advised Stan.

Stan merely nodded, but with an unsure expression on his face.

Before Bill could lecture anyone else, Mike raised his hand.

"I think we got the weapons covered." Mike said.

Everyone turned their attention to Mike.

Mike continued. "Someone gave me a large pouch of coins last Saturday. I didn't know who did, but I saw in my vision that it was a robed guy with glowing blue-green eyes. He said that he would give these same coin pouches "every seventh day of the week." And also when I touched the coins with my bare hands, I found out they were all 99% Silver."

"So? What about the coins?" Stan asked, not getting what Mike's point was.

Ben already caught what Mike was trying to say. "I read books on supernatural phenomena, silver is known to have mystical properties. It is used against vampires, werewolves, and evil spirits. So if we can melt those silver coins into our weapons, we can use those weapons against the monsters!"

Bill, Richie, Eddie, Stan, and Beverly looked very pleased with this idea and shook their heads in agreement.

"D-d-d-do you st-st-still have th-th-th-those coins, Mike?" Bill asked.

"Yeah, I kept the pouch safe in my bedroom. I'll show you tomorrow." Mike said. "It's already late, we should go home now."

Eddie stretched his arms and yawned. "You're right. Also, we have school tomorrow. And my mom's gonna kill me if she found out I snuck out at night to see my friends."

"I may not have school tomorrow, but I got a daily routine to stick to." Stan said.

"We can meet at my house after school tomorrow. How about that?" Mike asked as he left first.

"Sure thing, man! See you tomorrow!" Richie said.

"Oh! You two!" Stan spoke to Ben and Beverly. "Can you come to the Grace Baptist Church tomorrow for Simchat Torah? All of us are going to be there, I'll tell my family that you're friends from school!"

"Sure!" Beverly said as she went back home.

"Yeah, I'd love to!" Ben said as also went back home.

Bill, Richie, Eddie, and Stan were now the ones left standing outside.

"Well guys, let's re-re-rest up for to-to-tomorrow. We have a long ro-ro-road ahead." Bill told them.

"Our life will never get back to normal, will it?" Stan said.

"Who knows?" Eddie remarked.

"We'll just have to wait until we get there." Richie said.

The four of them contently rode their bikes back home, feeling that a new book had been opened in their lives. They just hoped it had a happy ending.

* * *

Unbeknownst to them, glowing yellow eyes were watching them from the bushes. IT turned back into the form of the clown as IT watched the seven tweens talk and part ways. IT was not happy at this development, IT was furious! Not only did IT had to avoid the Derry police in the sewers, IT also had to avoid the seven children blessed by The Turtle on the surface world!

IT knew that the children mistaked IT's different forms for different monsters and decided to play it that way. None of the children had known that IT could shapeshift into whatever IT pleases, including their FEARS.

IT hoped to exploit their fears one by one as IT feasted on their flesh.


	13. Founding Of The Losers' Club

**October 4, 1988**

Bill woke up to the sound of his alarm clock ringing. Groggily, he hit the snooze button and sat up in bed. He yawned and stretched his arms wide to get the sleepiness out of him. He felt so tired after last night's events that he simply flopped back down onto his bed.

His back hit something metal.

Surprised and curious, Bill reached for the slab of metal and held it up in front of him.

It was a clean slab of silver metal with an irregular shape. It looked almost like an oval, but not quite. Bill wondered how it got into his bed, but he would ask his friends when he got to school.

"Billy!" He heard his little brother calling him from downstairs.

"C-c-coming!" Bill said as he got up from bed while taking the piece of titanium with him.

He did his morning routine as usual:made his bed, brushed his teeth, wash his face, get dressed, and head downstairs for breakfast.

He still was really tired after going to sleep at 12am today. He reminded himself to get some Pepsi Cola from the vending machine at school. His parents continued to ignore him as they as they ate their breakfast.

But Bill's little brother, Georgie saw that he was clearly tired.

"Billy? What's wrong?" He asked.

"*Yawn* I'll t-t-t-tell you when we get to sch-sch-school, okay?" Bill replied, not wanting to discuss this in front of their parents.

Every school day now, their parents drove Georgie to elementary school while Bill still rode the school bus to high school. The adults at both schools became more protective of the students. They always accompanied the students to the restrooms and stood outside the stalls in case something bad happened.

There had been no incidents of missing children so far, so that was good. But the killer clown was still on the loose in Derry and five policemen were killed as a result.

When Bill met with his friends at school, he could see they were also as groggy as him from last night's events. But Bill could already tell they got another mysterious discovery. Both Richie and Eddie also got slabs of silver metal, but theirs' was a different size and shape from Bill's.

"I f-f-found this in my b-b-bed when I woke up this mo-mo-morning." Bill told the both of them. "I d-d-don't know how it got th-th-there."

"Not us either." Eddie admitted. "Rich and I got ours' the same way you did."

"Do you think that weird robe guy was the same dude Mike was talking about last night?" Richie asked as he adjusted his glasses.

"I-i-i-i-it could be. Let's ask Mike about it af-af-after school." Bill said.

The school day continued normally as far as it could get.

When seventh period finally arrived, Bill and two of his friends sat at the designated "Losers' Table" at lunch as always. Ben and Beverly joined the table too, now finding refuge in a group of new friends.

"Guess what Ben and I got this morning!" Beverly told her new friends.

"Let me guess, the slabs of silver metal?" Richie held his slab up.

"Yeah." Ben said as he and Beverly held their slabs up. "We don't know what kind of metal these slabs are made of. I'll have to look it up in the library after detention."

"Meet us at Mike's farm after sch-sch-school, he'll show us the sil-sil-silver coins." Bill told the group.

When the school day was over, Bill, Richie, and Eddie went right over to the Grace Baptist Church to tell Stan what was going on.

Stan also showed his slab of the silver metal to his friends. Unsurprisingly, Stan also said he got his slab this morning when he woke up.

Unfortunately, Stan couldn't go with them to Mike's farm because it was 15 minutes from town by bike. It was against Jewish tradition to drive during Simchat Torah, so reluctantly the three had to leave Stan behind.

When the trio made it to Mike"s farm, Mike explained that the slabs they got were from the same guy who gave him the silver coins. He also said the slabs were not made of silver, but of titanium much to their shock.

Mike also told them that the slabs are the keys to somewhere in the Barrens on Kansas Street.

Ben and Beverly arrived at Mike's farm just in time for him to show his new friends the silver coins.

Everyone except Mike was surprised at how much silver coins were in the pouch.

"HOLY SH*T! THAT'S A SH*TLOAD OF COINS!" Richie said as he adjusted his glasses at the large amount of coins.

"It'll be enough to make some good weapons and ammo out of them." Beverly remarked.

"But we'll need to melt them first." Ben said to the group. "I found out from some chemistry books that silver melts at a very high temperature of 1,763 °Fahrenheit/961.8 °Celsius. A good propane blowtorch would be well enough to melt the silver coins all at once."

"I have a propane blowtorch." Mike said, raising his gloved hand.

"So d-d-d-does my dad." Bill said.

"Then we're covered for melting the silver." Ben said before pausing. "But how are we gonna mold the silver into our weapons while it's burning hot?"

The six of them thought silently, trying to look for a solution. But all of them looked up when they found the perfect candidate to mold the burning hot silver.

"STAN." All six of them simultaneously said.

They all knew that Stan's power was long-ranged and that he could now move objects around without physically touching them. Stan would be able to mold the silver into weapons without risking getting burned by the hot silver liquid!

"We can get Stan to do the molding for us!" Richie said. "He has telekinetic powers, dude!"

"Great idea!" Ben said. "That way, none of us would get hurt while molding the silver!"

"Let's ask Stan when we get to the church." Eddie suggested thoughtfully. "You know he doesn't like using his powers."

"Ed-Ed-Eddie's right." Bill said. "Stan is st-st-still doesn't li-li-like using his p-p-powers, we'll have to ask him if he's al-al-alright with this."

* * *

All six of them biked back to the town to meet with Stan in the church. Stan welcomed all of his friends as they stepped through the front door.

They all spoke to Stan privately about the silver coins and asked him if he can help the mold the silver.

"Me?" Stan pointed to himself. "Me molding the silver? Why can't the rest of you do it?"

"Well..." Ben rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "You see...by the time we melt the silver, it's going to be burning hot. So..."

Stan thought for a moment before his eyes grew wide. "No...no, you're not asking me to do what I think you are asking me to do."

"C'mon, Stan! You're the only one who can mold the silver without getting burnt by it!" Richie protested.

"Yeah, Stan." Beverly joined in. "Without your telekinesis, there's no way we can mold the silver without getting burned!"

"Guys, guys." Stan brought his hands to his head. "I'm really stressed right now, I can't understand what's happening around here and my head just hurts thinking about it. I don't want to be a part of this!"

"St-St-Stan, neither of u-u-us chose to b-b-be a p-p-part of this." Bill comforted Stan. "S-s-someone did. We d-d-d-didn't see it coming ei-ei-either, so all we can do is just h-h-hang on for wh-whatever else is coming t-t-towards us."

"Yeah Stan." Eddie admitted quietly. "I didn't want to believe it either. But now I do, I just had to accept it."

Stan thought silently for a moment as the others waited for his response.

He finally responded with a sigh. "Fine, I'll do it."

"Thanks, Stan!" Richie happily said.

"But on one condition." Stan said.

"What is it?" Eddie asked.

"Promise me that you'll keep me safe." Stan said sternly.

"Deal!" Bill agreed.

The seven of them celebrated Simchat Torah with Stan's family by dancing and watching them read the Torah scrolls rejoicingly until 6:30pm.

Everyone went back home before 7pm as they did the several days before. The seven of them slept well that night, content that they found themselves in each other.

* * *

**October 5th, 1988**

The school day went on as usual: homerooms, classes, and lunch/recess. Ben and Beverly had detention for one week, so they came out of school an hour late.

When all of the seven tweens were assembled, they went to Mike's farm to discuss their next move.

"W-w-we should go to that pl-pl-place that Mike s-s-saw in his vision yesterday." Bill said. "Th-these slabs, th-they're the keys to that pl-pl-place."

They all went to that place in The Barrens at Bill's suggestion and saw a large stone hut. The roof was made of paved stones and was in the shape of a turtle's shell. The walls of the hut was made was made of more stones and was glued together by dried clay. There were no windows around the house and there was no door!

All seven of them were shocked at how huge this house could go unnoticed by the rest of the people in Derry.

"Whoa!" Eddie remarked.

"What's a big-a** house doing in The Barrens?!" Richie said as he adjusted his glasses at the size of the hut.

Meanwhile, Mike and Bill found an engraved outline of a turtle on the stoneless part of the wall.

"G-g-guys! This must be where we put our slabs!" Bill said as he put his in first.

Bill put his titanium slab first into the head and neck of the turtle engraving. Mike went second, putting his slab where the turtle's tail was. Richie put his slab at the top left, Eddie put his right under Richie's, Ben put his top right, Stan put his under Ben's, and finally Beverly put hers' right in the center.

The titanium slabs all fit perfectly like a jigsaw puzzle into the turtle engraving. In response, the lines along the slabs shone a bright blue-green the light spread to the rest of the house. The hut's roof transformed into an actual turtle shell ablaze with many colors! Windows also formed around the house, including the roof! The walls were now painted a shiny silver and a door magically formed around where the turtle engraving was!

The slabs in the engraving shone brighter until they became light balls and went back to their owners.

The light balls transformed into something else before they revealed themselves to be titanium keys. They were all identical, the head of the key was in the shape of the turtle formed by slabs and had a small hole at the top. The hexagon in the middle of the turtle was made if emerald from both sides. The shaft was cylindrical and the teeth at the right of the end of the shaft was a square with the number '7' cut out of it. The keys highly resembled antique keys from the olden times.

Everyone carefully grabbed the levitating keys in front of them as they curiously inspected the key in their hand.

"They're still made of titanium, guys." Mike said as he held the key with his bare hand, eyes glowing blue-green. "And the one resembling Beverly's slab on our keys is 100% Emerald."

As all of the others were focused on their keys, Bill saw the keyhole on the titanium doorknob. Using his key, he entered it through the keyhole and gave it a twist to the right.

There was a click and the door magically opened on its own.

"WHOA!" Richie exclaimed as they all slowly entered the hut.

The walls inside the hut were painted a very light pale teal. The floor was still made of gray stone, but much smoother like marble. There were wooden stairs leading to the 2nd floor and stone stairs leading to the basement.

There was a bike rack at left of their entrance and a light switch at the right wall. The rest of the floor was empty.

Ben and Beverly checked the upstairs room while Bill and Richie checked the cellar. They were also empty.

"Well guys, i-i-i-it looks like we got ourselves a cl-cl-cl-clubhouse." Bill said, turning to everyone.

"Yeah!" Richie exclaimed. "The LOSERS' CLUB-house!"

"Losers' Club?" Eddie asked, an eyebrow raised.

"I like the sound of that!" Beverly said cheerfully.

"But why the Losers', why not a cooler name?" Stan asked.

"Stan, th-th-think about it." Bill said. "We're all called "losers" for a reason. It's a-a-about time we em-em-embrace that and sh-sh-show everybody what we're made of."

"Yeah, I mean:" Richie started before listing everyone's abnormalities. "I'm blind, Eddie has asthma, Stan is Jewish, Mike is Black, Bev's poor, Ben's fat, and Bill has a stutter! Think about it guys! There's a reason why we're brought together! ALL SEVEN OF US! SEVEN! Isn't seven a magical number?! Isn't that why we're all together?!"

"Ri-Ri-Richie's right." Bill said. "There's a reason why we were all chosen to protect the town of Derry. We're the heroes that Derry don't want, but what they need. The seven of us are the only ones who can stop the monsters from plaguing our town before it's too late. Five policemen are now dead and Georgie was almost killed the first day the events started happening. The only thing we can do now is stop the monsters before they hurt and kill anyone else."

All six of them were deeply encouraged by Bill's rousing speech and Bill put his hand out.

"Who's with me?!" Bill asked.

Richie put his hand on top of Bill's first, then Eddie, then Mike, then Beverly, and then Ben.

Stan was the only one who didn't put his hand in. All six of them looked at Stan expectantly.

Stan sighed and said, "Alright, fine." Stan put his hand in last.

Everyone brought their hands up and cheered, "GO LOSERS CLUB!"

* * *

All seven of them stayed in the clubhouse to do their homework. They helped each other on questions that they didn't fully understand and were very thankful for it. They also spent the rest of the afternoon talking and counselling each other on their problems at home.

All of them never felt so much better than they did in their lives. They hoped they would stay like this forever but they sadly knew that they would move on as adults soon.

After leaving the clubhouse for the first time, they all agreed to start the weapon-building this Friday. Both Bill and Mike had the propane blowtorches, blowtorch helmets, borax powder, melting dish, a tub for the water, molds for ammo, and they would need gallons of water.

All seven of them agreed to bring in bottles of water this Friday afternoon to fill the tub so they would cool the silver down for them to touch it.

They all went home with bright smiles on their faces, still worried about the future but hopeful about the present.

They would have each others' backs from the bullies and ignorant grownups that plagued their town as much as the monsters.

On the other hand, the Turtle and IT were still at odds with each other outside of their knowledge. IT had clearly underestimated the Turtle and paid for it dearly. The Turtle had chosen seven outcast children right under IT's nose and granted them supernatural abilities to defend the town from IT.

IT was not happy, not at all. But IT definitely wasn't going to back down to a bunch of mortals.


	14. Preparing For The Next

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the late update! I have lazy streak and I got a lot of stuff on my mind. I'm still hyped for more Behind The Scenes of IT 2017 and Deleted Scenes of Pennywise/IT played by Bill Skårsgard! 
> 
> I'm also hyping for unrelated news like the Dissidia Final Fantasy NT game coming out a week later in Japan(1.11.2018) and WORLDWIDE(1.30.2018).
> 
> I can't wait to see my boys Cloud and Sephiroth in action! ;-3 <3

**October 7, 1988**

It was now Friday afternoon and all of the Losers except Ben and Beverly went straight to the clubhouse with their supplies.

Unlocking the door with his key, Bill told everyone to not start until the latter two arrived.

When Ben and Beverly finally arrived at the clubhouse an hour later, they all went to work.

"All ri-ri-right! Mike and I will be in ch-ch-charge of melting the s-s-s-silver. Stan will m-m-mold the silver. The r-r-r-rest of you empty all the w-w-water bottles into the tub!" Bill ordered.

Bill and Mike put some silver coins onto the weighing scale until it was 5 pounds/lbs in total. It was 72 silver coins.

Mike put the silver coins onto the large melting dish while Bill sprinkled the borax powder onto the coins.

Putting their helmets on, they melted the silver coins in the dish until it was a burning silver liquid.

"Stan," Mike said as he and Bill continued to burn the silver to keep it in liquid form. "We need you to pour the silver into the two molds we made."

"Okay, I'll try." Stan said as he lifted his hands and focused on tipping the dish over the molds.

Stan successfully got all the silver liquid into the molds and relaxed when Bill and Mike kept their flames trained on the silver liquid to prevent it from cooling down before it fit the shape of the mold.

When all of the silver liquid fit into the molds, Bill and Mike stopped their torches and waited for the silver to cool.

It took a few minutes for the silver to cool into a solid metal before Bill and Mike dumped the silver into the water-filled tub to cool them off. The water sizzled and hissed as it went into contact with the still-hot silver.

When it was cool enough to touch, Mike grabbed the newly-made silver bolt for his bolt gun while Bill grabbed the newly-made silver slug for his slingshot.

The rest of the Losers' Club took turns touching the newly-made silver ammo before returning them to the tub.

Bill, Mike, and Stan repeated the process nine more times until there were only 57 silver coins left in the pouch.

Stan felt a bit dizzy after using his telekinesis a lot to pour the hot silver liquid into the molds for the past hour and a half.

But it was worth it because Bill and Mike successfully made 10 silver bolts and 10 silver slugs to help them fight the monsters.

Mike put all of the silver bolts into his ammo belt while Bill put his silver slugs in his backpack.

Bill insisted that they save the remaining silver coins for tomorrow when the next batch of silver coins came.

Everyone agreed, except Richie who insisted that they should sell some of the silver coins in exchange for money.

But Bill was very insistent that the silver coins given to them every Saturday are to be used for weapons, not exchanging for money.

Richie stubbornly disagreed, saying that there are already hundreds of coins given to them every Saturday, so they would be able to use some of the coins to exchange for money.

Bill then compromised with Richie, they would have to make the rest of the weapons first and then they can exchange the silver coins for money.

Richie agreed and then they all went home for the rest of the day.

* * *

**October 8, 1988**

It was finally Saturday and all of the Losers each got a small pouch of 111 silver coins under their pillow that morning.

They all biked to their clubhouse with the supplies again to make new weapons.

Beverly was given Bill's slingshot and the silver slugs since she proved to be the best shot out of everyone.

Mike still had his bolt gun and silver bolts, so he was still equipped with a weapon.

Everyone else proposed their weapon choice. Bill wanted a silver chain that was 3-feet long and weighed 15 pounds. Richie wanted a 10-pound silver baseball bat. Eddie wanted a silver solution in a spray that acted like battery acid to the monsters. Stan wanted a long-ranged weapon like Beverly's in the form of silver arrows. And Ben wanted a 20-pound silver spear.

The group decided to start with Eddie's first. But they would need tongs, heatproof beakers, nitric acid, and aluminium foil. Bill went back to his house and got these supplies before returning back to the clubhouse.

Bill and Mike set one of the beakers on the large melting dish before pouring in the nitric acid to 250ml. Mike used the tongs to carefully dump 8 silver coins into the nitric acid. Stan telekinetically held the beaker in the air while both Bill and Mike heated the acid with their propane torches until it was boiling hot and the coins dissolved.

When the solution cooled down enough, they wrapped the aluminum foil around the beaker to let it evaporate and avoid light.

They repeated the process to one more beaker before moving onto Richie's weapon. They put the silver coins into the scale until it weighed approximately 10 pounds. They used up 143 coins.

Stan had to telekinetically lift all the borax-covered coins in the air while Bill and Mike melted the silver with their propane torches. Even while continuing lifting the melted silver in midair, Stan had to shape it into a bat as Bill and Mike kept their flames trained on the silver. Stan was a perfectionist when it came to everything, so he made sure no silver dropped on the ground, the bat had no open spaces inside and outside, and that the bat was as symmetrically shaped as possible.

When Bill and Mike turned off their torches, Stan had to wait until the silver cooled into a solid before dropping it into the water-filled tub.

Stan felt dizzy and his nose was bleeding a bit. He flopped onto his back to rest from the strain he put himself to.

All six of them patted Stan comfortably as he rested on the floor, head still ringing.

"We got you, Stan." Eddie said as he pressed his tissues to Stan's bleeding nostril.

"Thanks, Stan!" Richie said as he held up his new bat. "I love it a lot!"

After resting for an hour, Stan helped make the silver chain next, which was made from melted 215 silver coins.

Stan didn't sleep on the floor this time since Ben brought him a sleeping bag for him to sleep in.

He rested for another hour before making Ben's 20-pound spear, made from 285 melted coins.

Stan was now the only left without a weapon because he needed the crossbow first to measure how long the arrows should be.

Bill now allowed the Losers to use the silver coins to exchange for money.

"Ev-ev-everyone." Bill announced. "Y-y-you can now use the silver coins for m-m-m-money!

"YES!" Richie fistpumped enthusuastically. "FINALLY!"

"B-b-b-but!" Bill reminded. "Keep in m-m-m-mind though, we st-st-still need the silver to m-m-make our ammo! S-s-s-so don't sp-sp-spend it too much!"

All of them then assembled the remaining coins and counted them. There were only 175 coins left. So they split 25 silver coins for each person.

They all said their goodbyes as they left the clubhouse that afternoon.

Bill kept his 25 coins in his small pouch, wanting to save them for later. Richie, Eddie, Beverly, and Ben exchanged all of their silver coins to the Currency Exchange at the Derry Mall for $176.50 each.

Richie spent all of his money on three NES games like Super Mario Bros 1&2 and The Legend of Zelda. He spent the remaining money on junk food like soda, chips, and candy.

Eddie spent some of his money on medical supplies at the Center Street Drug Store. Eddie knew that Bill's power could be used for closing up wounds, fixing broken bones, and repairing bruises but it couldn't disinfect wounds or cure diseases. So he bought two first-aid kits for around 20 bucks each, a large bottle of rubbing alcohol, and a bag of cotton balls.

Ben went to the Back Pages bookstore and purchased a few Derry History books for him to keep and research before going to the Derry Public Library.

Beverly stayed at the Derry Mall to shop for some new clothes. Majority of her clothes were worn out and torn. Because she was poor, she had to buy all of her clothes from the thrift shop. The clothes there cost around a few dollars to twenty so it was affordable for her. But the problem was that they didn't last very long over the years since they were old and used. So she decided to search the mall to buy clothes that lasted a lot longer.

To her expectation, the clothes at the mall cost more than they did at the thrift shop. But Beverly now had the money to afford those clothes, so she continued shopping. Beverly ended up spending all of her money on a new coat with a hood, a pair of boots, and a pair of gloves. She donated all of her worn and torn clothes to the homeless after that.

* * *

**October 9, 1988**

The next day, Stan went to the Currency Exchange to exchange all 25 of his silver coins for money. He then went to the sports store to purchase a crossbow with no arrows included and a quiver to hold his arrows in. His crossbow had a scope in it to make it easier for him to aim at long distances.

He would now have to make the silver arrows to use as ammo from now on.

All seven of the Losers went to their clubhouse as always to talk, help each other with homework, study for tests, etc. Richie even brought the junk food he bought the other day to share with his friends.

But they would need to buy tables and chairs if they wanted to sit as comfortably as possible inside the clubhouse.

But they would have to wait this Saturday for more of the silver coins to come.

* * *

**October 11, 1988**

It was Columbus Day yesterday, so school was out that day. It was now Tuesday, but it was the first day of Latin class and Dance class at Derry High. Bill, Richie, Eddie, Stan, and Ben had signed up for one/or two of those classes. Out of the six that went to Derry High, only Bill and Ben signed up for Latin class. On the other hand, four out of the six signed up for Dance class and that was Bill, Richie, Eddie, and Stan. Beverly was the only one who didn't sign up for either classes, choosing to stay in Home Eck, Music, and Gym.

Bill wanted to take Latin class because he was fascinated by the roots Latin had on other languages, including English. Ben, a history bookworm wanted to take Latin because of its reputation as a dead language. Bill's little brother, Georgie wanted to take Latin class simply because his big brother wanted to take it.

As for the reasons for choosing Dance class, Bill wanted to join because Georgie wanted to join. Richie was a natural performer and attention-seeker so Dance class was fit for him. Eddie joined because he hoped that Dance class would be less strenuous than Gym class, Eddie had to stop vigorous physical activity for several minutes because of his asthma. Stan joined because he disliked being in the stinky locker room and watching other boys change. Stan also joined because he didn't like strenuous physical activity. Georgie wanted to join because he loved to perform.

_RINGRINGRINGRINGRINGRING!_

When 3rd Period came, Bill and Ben went to the room where Latin class was located in and took their seats next to each other.

"B-B-Ben? You're in this class too?" Bill asked as he greeted Ben.

"Yeah, I want to learn about Latin too. I thought it would be really cool to learn a dead language!" Ben said to him.

"Same! I-i-i-it's interesting to see wh-wh-what influences L-L-Latin has on many ot-ot-other languages." Bill agreed.

"Welcome class." The teacher greeted the class. "I am Mr. Maturin, the new Latin teacher here at Derry High."

The teacher looked exactly the same as the man Bill and Georgie saw at the diner last Sunday. The teacher was decked out in dark blue and green garb as always under a dark purple shawl this time.

"Today we will start with introducing ourselves to one another." Mr. Maturin said before glancing in Bill's direction.

On instinct, Bill stood up and introduced himself right away. "M-M-My name is W-W-William James D-D-Denbrough. But everyone arounds me calls me "B-B-Bill."

"Nice to meet you, Bill." His teacher said to him amicably. "I promise we'll all be friends here."

Ben went next. "I'm Ben Hanscom. Nice to meet you, Mr. Maturin."

"Nice to meet you too, Ben." Mr. Maturin warmly greeted Ben.

After everyone in the classroom introduced themselves, Mr. Maturin began the lesson. He taught the whole class the Latin alphabet and how to pronounce each letter.

Bill and Ben easily grasped the Latin alphabet with flying colors as the hour went by.

Before they knew it, the school bell rang and it was time to prepare for the next class.

"Class dismissed." Mr. Maturin said as all of his new students packed up and prepared for their next classes.

Bill and Ben stayed behind to talk to Mr. Maturin. They wanted to ask what was happening to them.

"U-u-um. Mr. Maturin?" Bill asked nervously.

"Yes, Bill?" Mr. Maturin asked as he did his paperwork.

"W-w-we wanted to ask y-y-you about wh-wh-what's happening to the seven of u-u-us." Bill asked.

Mr. Maturin smiled knowingly. "Yes, you want me to tell you why I have chosen the seven of you to protect Derry."

"So it was you?! You're the man who gave us these powers, gave Mike the silver coins, and us keys to that house?" Ben asked.

"Yes." Mr. Maturin admitted matter-of-factly. "That was me. I have waited for children like you to stand up to the evils surrounding this town."

"B-b-but why us?" Bill questioned.

"It is because I see a lot of potential in you. Seven kids who don't exactly fit in with the lot and are aware of the evils surrounding our town." He said.

"You mean the monsters and the clown in the sewer?" Ben asked.

"Yes. They have plagued this town for many centuries. And you Ben, already know what has happened in this town." Mr. Maturin stared at him knowingly.

"Yes. Yes I do." Ben admitted.

"That is why I have chosen you, Ben." Mr. Maturin told him. "You are very eager to learn the morbid truths behind this town, unlike the others who have chosen to ignore the atrocities committed in this very town."

"I-I-I don't kn-know what I can d-do. But I'll do whatever I can to protect the people of this town! I'll even risk my own life to protect everyone, I swear!" Bill said determinedly.

"Ah yes, that selflessness and persistence to help the people of this town no matter how much they wronged you! That is why I have chosen you too, Mr. Denbrough." Mr. Maturin praised Bill, his eyes glowing a pleasant blue-green again.

"Wh-what about the others?" Bill asked. "Why have you chosen the rest of them?"

Without hesitation, Mr. Maturin told him why in brief. "Well you see: Richie may be vulgar and obnoxious, but deep down he cares very much about his friends. Eddie may look small and frail, but truth is that he is strong and brave. Stan is the only one who refuses to accept the unexplainable, but this helps keep everyone firmly grounded in reality. As for Beverly, who is unfortunately the only female in your group, she is willing to take action for what she feels is right. As for Mike, he is very resilient and stoic in the most stressful of situations."


	15. Chapter 15

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about the wait! I have classes that I have to commute to and I get lethargic a lot.
> 
> I'm also making another IT AU fic, do I won't be updating this fic very often.

**October 11, 1988**

  
When 7th Period finally came, all of the Losers sat at their designated table and talked about their school day.

"So how was Latin class for the both of you?" Beverly asked Ben and Bill.

"It was pretty good," Ben admitted. "We learned about the Latin alphabet and how to pronounce each letter."

"Pl-pl-plus, the teacher was the same guy who gave Mike the silver coins." Bill said.

"Really?" Beverly's eyes went wide. "Did he talk to you about what's happening around here?"

"Kind of," Ben informed her. "He confirmed to us that he was the one who gave us these powers to protect Derry from those monsters."

"So it was him!" Beverly exclaimed.

"There you are, Beaver-ly." A nasty, feminine voice spoke to Beverly.

The Losers turned their attention to the mean girl glaring down at them.

It was all four girls of the Rich Clique sneering down at the Losers: Greta, Sally, Marcia, and Cassidy.

Beverly was the first to respond to them. "What do you want, Greta?"

"Oh, don't 'what' me, Beaver-ly. You know why we came here." Greta sneered. "It turns out I was right, you have been wh*ring yourselves to a bunch of boys! So how do you feel about now, sl*t?!"

"Again with the sl*t-shaming again, how predictable." Beverly rolled her eyes. "I never expected anything more from you."

"But it's true!" Sally retorted. "You've been wearing some expensive clothes lately ever since you hung out with those boys! That's how you got the money, huh?! Because you've wh*red yourself to these boys?!"

Ben and Bill stood in front of Beverly protectively.

"L-l-l-look!" Bill said angrily to the four mean girls standing in front of them. "I d-d-don't know what your problem is, but yo-yo-you're wrong! We're her FRIENDS!"

"Oh? Trying to play hero again?" Marcia mocked him. "I never expected less from you, Stuttering Bill!"

"And I never expected less from you, Marcia Peter-F*cker!" Richie fired back angrily.

The four girls gasped at Richie's insult.

"You take that back!" Cassidy demanded.

"Or what are you gonna do?!" Richie asked cheekily.

The Rich Clique's faces were beet-red with anger as they tried to think of something to fire back at the Losers.

"Give it up, Greta." Beverly warned her. "You can't win. I'm not alone anymore. There's six of us now and there's still only four of you. You're outnumbered, get out of here before you regret it."

Greta was furious by this outcome. She and her friends have managed to succeed in harassing Beverly for the past several years and this was the first time they lost. Greta didn't want to admit defeat, but she had no choice. She was outnumbered by 6 to 4 people, there was no way she could win.

Greta exhaled sharply as she begrudgingly admitted defeat. "Fine, you win this time. But we'll find new members to add to our team and YOU'LL BE SORRY you ever messed with the Rich Clique!"

With that said, Greta furiously stormed off with her friends in tow.

Beverly let out a deep sigh of relief and turned to her friends.

"Thanks guys, no one ever stood up for me before." She smiled brightly.

"Are you alright, Beverly?" Ben asked her concernedly.

"Yeah, thanks to the three of you." Beverly said.

"No problem at all. I'm just glad none of us got hurt this time." Ben said shyly.

"Yeah! Losers' Club-1, B*tch Clique-ZERO!" Richie cheered.

When school was out, Bill, Richie, Eddie, and Stan went straight home in a group while Ben and Beverly travelled to the clubhouse as a couple.

While the four boys were going home, the Bowers' Gang drove by and honked at them while calling them "f*ggots." Richie stuck up his middle fingers at them in response and called them "a**holes."

* * *

"I'm home!" Bill said as unlocked the front of his house with his key.

"Billy!" His 6-year-old brother Georgie ran to him and hugged him happily.

"Hey, Georgie! How was Dance class?" Bill hugged him back.

Georgie looked at him with sparkling chocolate-brown eyes. "It was amazing! The teacher was super-nice!"

"I th-th-thought as much." Bill chuckled. "So how's your arm?"

"It's getting better! Nothing hurts when I move it now, Billy!" Georgie replied.

"Bill, you're back." Their mom said. "You're just in time, I'm going to take you boys to the Derry Mall to get some dance gear."

"Do you hear that, Billy?! Mom's gonna get us dance stuff!" Georgie jumped up and down excitedly.

"Yeah, yeah. I hear you, Georgie." Bill laughed.

By the time Bill and his family went to the Derry Mall, the dance store was already kinda crowded.

Most of Robert Gray's Dance students were female so there weren't many males inside the dance store.

While Bill and Georgie browsed the store, they met up with Richie, Eddie, and Stan.

Eddie's mom had already chosen for her son. Much to Eddie's embarrassment, she bought a short pink leotard, white tights, and pink ballet shoes.

When Richie saw what Eddie's mom had bought, he literally rolled on the floor laughing.

Stan had already gotten a white stretch tee, black tights, and lace-up jazz shoes for his dance gear.

Richie on the other hand decided on wearing a bright orange low-cut biketard and tap shoes.

Bill chose a dark blue full-body unitard and black jazz shoes with no laces.

And Georgie chose a yellow stretch tee, white biketard, and beige slip-ons.

After that, Bill, Richie, Eddie, and Stan met up with Ben, Beverly, and Mike at their clubhouse. They talked and did their homework like they always did from now on before returning home at 6 pm.

* * *

**October 12, 1988**

_RINGRINGRINGRINGRING!_

When the 1st Period was over, Bill, Richie, Eddie, and Stan quickly ran to the boys' bathroom to change into their dance gear.

After changing, the four were ridiculed by other students passing by as they made their way to Dance class. They all brought their bookbags with them just in case.

They went to the classroom that didn't exist before and were wowed by how the new classroom looked like an actual dance studio!

"Whoa..." The four of them gaped at the size of the room.

There were wall mirrors on the side of one room and bars right in front of them. The walls were covered with orange pom-pom wallpaper.

There was a closet to put their stuff in and a cubby to put their shoes in.

Before any of them could step into the room, someone cheerfully greeted them.

"Hiya, boys! I see you're all well-prepared!"

They stared at the man who was talking to them. He was very tall, he had brown hair, hazel-green eyes, and a fair complexion. He was dressed in a polka-dot orange bow-tie, white dress shirt, and dark red slacks. His shoes were brown laced-up jazz shoes.

The man had a friendly smile on his face and his large, elegantly-shaped hands gestured to the closet next to the entrance.

"Come on in! Welcome to Dance class! I'm Robert Gray! But you can call me Bob or the old Mr. Gray if you want! You can start by putting your bags inside the closet and your shoes inside your assigned cubbies! We're going to have so much fun together for the rest of the school year!" Mr. Gray clapped his hands together gleefully like an excited young child.

The four of them put their bags on either the shelves, hooks, or the floor of the closet before putting their non-dance shoes inside their assigned cubbies.

They then sat on the floor with the other students. But they didn't dare sit next to any of the Rich Clique members like Greta Bowie-Keene, Sally Mueller, Marcia Fadden, or Cassidy Pickett.

"Welcome, class! I am Robert Gray! I am your new Dance teacher for this school year!" The man spoke in a chipper voice. "First things first! You won't be needing your bags for this class! But you will need to wear flexible and comfortable clothing for you to move around. Also, it's not required for you to have dance shoes but it is highly recommended that you do. They will allow you to move around the dance floor smoothly and easily without slipping or struggling."

Mr. Gray went towards his desk and picked up a dance magazine before going back to the front of the class.

"I will only accept these types of dance shoes," Mr. Gray said as he pointed to the shoes in the magazine. "Ballet shoes, jazz shoes, and dance sneakers. No shoes with a higher heel or shoes that make a lot of noise will be allowed in this class."

Mr. Gray pointedly stared at Richie who was clacking his tap shoes on the floor. Everyone stared at Richie too.

"Sorry." Richie said sheepishly.

"Don't worry, Mr. Tozier. You're excused for today, but come back with either of the following shoes I listed." Mr. Gray reminded him.

"Yes, sir!" Richie nodded.

"Great!" Mr. Gray beamed. "Let's begin with our warmups!"

Mr. Gray played "Billie Jean" by Michael Jackson on his boombox, much to the entire class' excitement.

After the warmups, Mr. Gray announced that for the rest of the month of October, they would be dancing Michael Jackson's Thriller to celebrate Halloween.

Everyone cheered loudly inside the classroom, knowing that they would be learning to dance like their beloved celebrity.

Mr. Gray taught them the first steps of the Thriller and helped those who were struggling with the timing and the steps.

Bill, Richie, Eddie, and Stan did pretty well for beginners. Only a few students in the class struggled to learn the dance.

When the bell rang, Mr. Gray congratulated his students on their first day together and dismissed the class.

* * *

**October 15, 1988**

It was finally Saturday again and all of the Losers had their turtle pouches magically refilled with 111 silver coins each.

They immediately went to their clubhouse to make silver arrows for Stan's crossbow. The arrows were a foot long in length and they weighed half a pound each.

Stan ended up using 100 of his silver coins to make 14 silver arrows for his crossbow.

Now that everyone had a weapon made of silver, they could hunt the monsters again like last week. Beverly would use her precognition power to warn everyone when and where the monster(s) would strike. Luckily for them, there were none today.

Everyone was tasked with buying furniture for their clubhouse.

They ended up buying a giant table for them to work on and a lot of comfy chairs. They also bought a sofa for Stan to rest on whenever he got exhausted from using his telekinesis.

After that was done, they socialized with each other and helped each other with their homework like always.

They even went to the Tracker Brothers' baseball field to play some baseball with each other before going their separate ways.

Beverly shopped for more groceries to cook at home as always. She didn't have to worry about her fridge being empty anymore now that she had a lot of money. She also went back to the Derry Mall to shop for some new clothes too.

Richie bought the NES and invited Bill, Eddie, and Stan to go play with him at his house.

Ben still visited the library as usual to read up on the history of Derry.

And Mike still worked at the farm with his grandfather.

* * *

**October 17, 1988**

Unfortunately for the Losers' Club, new members had joined the Bowers' Gang and the Rich Clique. For the Bowers' Gang, three boys had joined. Their names were Peter Gordon, Gard Jagermeyer, and Moose Sadler. As for the Rich Clique, two girls had joined. Their names were Keira O'Dea and Ivy Thorn.

Peter Gordon was a rich guy who lived on West Broadway with Greta, Sally, and Marcia as his neighbors. He was also Marcia's boyfriend and partner in bullying. Gard Jagermeyer and Moose Sadler were stupid, but physically strong guys who could break a kid's arm with just one snap. Keira O'Dea was a natural redhead just like Beverly, but her hair was a darker red and her eyes were a sickly green. Ivy Thorn was the youngest and smallest member of the Rich Clique but she was also the toughest.

Now the Bowers' Gang had 7 members instead of 4 and the Rich Clique had 6 members instead of 4. If put together, the Losers Club were severely outmatched by 7 to 13. Since Mike didn't go to the same school as them, they were 6 to 13 at school.

However, the Losers had several advantages over them because of their supernatural powers given by the Turtle. All of them could sense each other whenever they were in danger and they could send their power to each other no matter how far apart they were.

Beverly could use her precognition to see where either of the bullies would be located at certain times and what they would be doing against them.

Since Stan was very reluctant to use his telekinesis, Eddie was charged with warding the bullies off with his mind control.

Richie tried to suggest that he can change his voice into a sonic scream to ward off the bullies, but Bill declined by saying that he would risk drawing attention. Bill suggested instead that Richie hides somewhere near the bullies and change his voice into anything fearsome to scare them away as long as it wasn't very loud enough for anyone else to hear. Reluctantly, Richie agreed.

The day went by a blur and while they were on their way home, they were targeted by the Bowers' Gang as expected.

"Hey Losers, what do you think of our new gang m-" Henry bragged before getting silenced by Eddie's mind control again.

The Bowers' Gang drove away without a word, having been commanded by Eddie to simply go away.

"This, I'll have to get used to." Eddie grumbled as his head spun a bit from using his mind control.

* * *

Somewhere in the cafeteria, Robert Gray glowered menacingly at the Losers Club. He drowned out the noises of all the people around him in the cafeteria as he watched the Losers. However, he focused his attention mainly on Bill, Georgie's older brother. Robert wanted nothing more than to make the boy suffer, but that was almost impossible with his friends surrounding him.

To make matters worse, his brother Maturin was protecting them and uniting them against him. Robert was baffled that these children were the ones chosen to stop him. He was even more baffled that Maturin finally came to Earth and directly helped the humans more.

Robert always thought Maturin was old, lazy, and stupid. Maturin seemed too passive and mellow enough to do anything but vomit up new worlds. He certainly didn't expect him to build a physical form small enough to settle on Earth and seek the help of mortal children.

Robert was going to confront Maturin about this and prove himself the superior being of the two. Maturin was just a dumb turtle and the children were mere insects compared to IT.

Sooner or later, Robert hoped to crush the hopes of the opposing side while making them scream in fear. But first, he had to find a certain group of people to help him against the Losers' Club. Robert certainly cannot confront the Losers alone, so he had to find a group of kids who would take them down.

By the time he saw the Bowers' Gang harass the Losers' Club, he smiled deviously as he thought of his new evil plan. He would need the help of some unruly, barbaric boys to tear down the Losers' Club into a scrap of paper.

_"Yes...if that stupid Turtle could do it, so can I."_ Robert thought to himself as he played with his fork.

On the other hand, Maturin watched the Losers from afar and smiled as they continued to get along with each other.

_"Be brave, Lucky Seven. Stick together and you can triumph over any odds."_ Maturin thought, eyes gleaming a shiny blue-green again.


	16. The Teenage Werewolf

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I'm back! Sorry for the very long wait! It's been 8 months! Wow! Time sure flew really quickly!
> 
> I got the hardcover IT book a few months ago and pretty much I'm gonna update more quickly because of the information I got from there. 
> 
> It's only a few days before Halloween! I hope I get the next chapter done by that day!
> 
> Still can't wait for IT Chapter 2 to come next year, even if it breaks my heart again. ;'-C

**October 17, 1988**

After school, the Losers went to the clubhouse as always. They helped each other with their homework and projects while talking about their lives a bit. As they found out, Richie and Ben were the only ones with pretty decent parents. Ever since Georgie was attacked by the clown in the sewer, Bill's parents kind of neglected him in favor of Georgie. Eddie had an overprotective mom who would warn him about every possible disease he could catch before letting him out with his friends. Stan's father was strict about Stan following Jewish traditions. Beverly had an incestuous father who would look at her creepily at every turn and put his dirty hands on her. And Mike's parents died in a fire set by local racists when he was just a baby, leaving him with his tough-as-nails grandfather.

After sharing their pain and their hardships, they felt a lot better. They smiled bigger than they did their entire life. Even with the burdens heaved upon their shoulders, they still felt very happy to have each other around. There would be many challenges ahead, but with all seven of them together, they could face any odds.

* * *

Meanwhile, IT had built a new team for ITself whom IT called the Unlucky Seven in opposition to Maturin's Lucky Seven. IT had given the Bowers' Gang monstrous forms to do IT's dirty work. But they wouldn't be of their own control, IT would control their bodies like mindless puppets and they would not remember anything after they return to their true forms. This was to make sure that the Bowers' Gang wouldn't stupidly abuse their powers to the point of drawing attention to themselves and getting caught immediately by the public.

Henry's monstrous form was in the form of a werewolf with superhuman strength and sharp claws. Vic's was a vampire with the ability to fly and draw strength from blood. Belch's was a bloated zombie with the ability to produce toxic burps and vomit. Patrick's was a flame monster with the ability to ignite anything and absorb fire. Peter's was a skeleton with the ability to use his bones as projectiles and rebuild himself once broken apart. Gard's was a Frankenstein monster that could control electricity and smash stuff. And Moose's was a phantom with the ability to fly and pass through objects.

With these forms, the Lucky Seven would not recognize the Bowers' Gang and mistake them for seven of the monsters roaming around Derry.

With the odds evened out, IT set on another evil plan to get rid of the Lucky Seven.

* * *

**October 22, 1988**

Saturday came again and this time the Losers were shopping for Halloween costumes. Bill, Richie, Eddie, and Stan agreed to dress up as Ghostbusters. Ben and Beverly decided to dress up as 80's pop icons and Mike decided to be a scarecrow. Georgie chose a turtle costume for this year's Halloween. He was adamant on going trick-or-treating with Bill and his friends, but Bill and his parents declined to keep him safe. They couldn't risk Georgie being in danger like he already was a few weeks ago. Georgie was almost eaten by the clown in the sewer and had to get stitches at the local hospital, he already been through enough.

Shortly after shopping, Beverly had a vision of a teenage werewolf attacking police officers at the Neibolt House on the 25th of October, which was the night of the Full Moon.

The Losers used some of their silver coins to make additional ammo just in case. After doing so, they went into the basement of their clubhouse to test their weapons and powers in combat.

Their target was in the form of a thick 6-foot dummy made of very durable material. It was made of very rough brown fabric wrapped around some sort of impact-absorbent material.

Beverly went first by aiming at the head with her slingshot and silver slugs. She practiced reloading as quickly as she could from the pouch wrapped around her waist. She did so successfully without missing her target.

Mike went next by running up to the dummy and shooting his bolt gun at the dummy's head before running back to the group.

Ben grabbed his spear and rammed it into the dummy multiple times, leaving multiple holes in it.

Bill swung his chain at the dummy as hard as he could, leaving multiple bruises in the dummy.

Richie started out with a sonic-scream at the dummy while his friends covered their ears and then whacked the dummy as hard as he could, leaving more bruises in the dummy.

Eddie went second by running up to the dummy, spraying his solution at it's head and running back to the group.

Stan went last by aiming his crossbow at the dummy's head and shooting all of the bolts he had in his quiver. After all of his arrows were left inside the dummy, Stan used his telekinesis to get all the arrows out of the dummy and assembling them in the air in front of him. Stan then telekinetically pushed all of the arrows at once, leaving the dummy impaled with multiple arrows inside it's body. Stan then recollected all of his arrows and smoothly put them back into his quiver.

None of their weapons got damaged, which was a good thing. Even if they were damaged, Bill's restoration powers would fix them right away. Their arms hurt from using their weapons, but it was worth it. They were now prepared to fight against their enemies.

* * *

**October 25th, 1988**

After a few days of waiting and planning, the Losers went to action. They waited until their parents were fast asleep before sneaking on their bikes out to the Neibolt house. The police officers that were still alive shot at the werewolf as much as they could, but their bullets had little effect. The werewolf had already killed three of the policemen and injured several others.

When the Losers arrived at their destination, they were all clad head-to-toe in masks, goggles, gloves, and other protection equipment.

Their eyes stared in horror at the eviscerated, torn-apart, and bitten bodies of the deceased policemen. Eddie took out his aspirator from his fanny pack and inhaled as much as he could before closing his eyes to avert his gaze at the ghastly sight.

"WHAT THE F*CK!" Richie screamed at the sight of guts spilling out on the bloody cement.

"URK!" Stan convulsed from the sight and smell of the carnage and vomited on the ground.

Mike accompanied Stan as the five of them continued to stare at the bodies lying in front of them.

Without hesitation, Bill went ahead to heal the injured.

"Bill, wait for me!" Eddie said as he readied his first-aid kit and the others followed.

"Ed-Ed-Eddie, knock them out while we fix their wounds." Bill ordered him before turning to the rest of his friends. "You guys go ahead and take down the werewolf, we'll join you once we're done!"

"Okay, got it!" Beverly said as she, Richie, Stan, Ben, and Mike ran in to help the policemen fight the werewolf.

Eddie used his mind-control to knock the injured policemen unconscious while he and Bill healed their wounds. The process was simple: Eddie disinfected the wounds and Bill used his restoration powers to close them up.

Meanwhile, Beverly, Richie, Stan, Ben, and Mike engaged in an all-out scuffle with the werewolf. Beverly and Stan stood from a distance on opposite sides while Richie, Ben, and Mike fought closely together as a group.

Richie used his sonic-scream to immobilize the werewolf while Beverly and Stan tried their best to aim at the werewolf's head. Beverly and Stan got several good hits in with their ammo that left bruises and grazes on the werewolf's face.

Ben and Mike tried to block the werewolf's path to the best of their ability. Ben managed to pierce one of the werewolf's paws and Mike shot one of the werewolf's legs.

"Guys!" Bill called out as he and Eddie joined the fight.

"Sorry about the wait!" Eddie said as he readied his spray.

"It's about g*dd*amned time you guys showed up!" Richie said. "You ready to take this motherf*cker down?!"

"We'd be ly-lying if we say we didn't!" Bill answered as he swung his chain around.

The werewolf roared and then charged directly at Bill.

Bill hit the werewolf in the face with his chain and the latter stumbled back. This left an opening for all the Losers to hit the werewolf with all their might.

"GET HIM NOW!" Bill yelled.

Beverly and Stan shot their ammo from afar while the rest of the group charged at the werewolf.

They hoped that they would inflict the killing blow on the monster once and for all, but a powerful telekinetically force pushed them all back.

The Losers landed a few feet from the werewolf as it glowered at them hatefully with it's yellow eyes.

To their surprise, the werewolf decided to retreat. But not without leaving a few words in a low, guttural voice.

"I'LL KILL YOU ALL! KILL YOU AAAAAAAAAAALLLLLL!" The werewolf said as it ran into the darkness of the night and disappeared.

The Losers gathered up their strength and slowly got on their feet.

"I-i-i-i-is everyone okay?" Bill shakingly asked as picked himself off the sidewalk.

"Yeah, we're okay!" Richie said.

"Hey, you." One of the policemen called out.

The Losers froze as the policemen walked towards them.

"Who are you and what are you-" The officer stopped mid-sentence.

Bill, Richie, Stan, Ben, Beverly, and Mike stared in surprise as they saw that the policemen were put into a trance. They all stared at Eddie, whose eyes were glowing a bright blue-green.

"We were never here." Eddie told the policemen in an ominous voice.

The policemen fell unconscious to the ground and Eddie fell exhausted into Richie's arms.

"I got you, Eds." Richie said as he kept Eddie on his feet.

While the rest of the Losers Club looked after Eddie, Bill stared at the spot where the dead bodies should have been. There was blood and eviscerated bodies, but now they were gone as if they were never there.

"Bill? What are you staring at?" Mike asked.

"Th-th-the dead bo-bodies over there...they're gone." Bill replied.

The rest of the Losers joined Bill on the road and stared with dread at the spot where there used to be blood and guts.

* * *

Somewhere in the sewers, IT was angrily stuffing ITs face with the stale corpses of the three policemen IT had just killed.

IT wanted to retake the Neibolt house from the policemen who guarded it from the inside and outside, but the policemen were relentlessly persistent on warding IT off IT's property.

Adding to IT's anger was the Turtle's Lucky Seven. When the Lucky Seven came, IT had to retreat and try to reclaim IT's house another time.

As the creature continued to feast, IT tried to think of another plan.

IT would deploy the Bowers' Gang on the day of Halloween to distract the Losers while IT tried to reclaim IT's house.

IT smiled with a crooked grin as IT prepared another one of IT's evil plans.

* * *

**October 26, 1988**

The day after the Losers faced the werewolf, they woke up with their limbs aching and their minds groggy from an insufficient amount of sleep.

But luckily before going to their homerooms, they had the help of Eddie's mind-control powers to wipe their sleepiness away. Sadly, since Mike didn't go to the same school as them, Mike had to go through the day at home with a drowsy mind.

The bullies at their school still went out their way to harass them as expected of them. But again, the Losers' supernatural powers would save them from their troubles. Beverly could predict where they would strike, Eddie would ward them off, and Bill could fix whatever injuries the bullies inflicted on them.

As always, after-school the Losers went to their secret clubhouse to do their homework, study for tests, and talk.

Ben showed everyone his secret New Kids On The Block collection and much to his delight, they didn't make fun of him at all for liking a boy band.

The rest of the Losers shared their favorite music artists like The Cult, The Cure, XTC, Prince, David Bowie, Queen, etc.

Richie had to practice his lines for the play on Friday just in case the lead couldn't do his part, so he rehearsed in front of his friends to have them critique his performance.

Much to his delight, they loved his performance of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. They enjoyed how fluidly Richie changed from a well-mannered doctor to a menacing beast.

Bill, Richie, Eddie, and Stan continued to practice dancing Michael Jackson's Thriller for the upcoming Halloween show on Richie's newly-bought boombox with Ben, Beverly, and Mike as the audience.

The four of them had improved drastically since the last time they first started dancing the Thriller.

Bill wished that Georgie could join them for dance practice in the clubhouse, but his parents were adamant on keeping him inside their house. Georgie had no choice but to practice dancing in the same room their mom played the piano.

* * *

**October 29, 1988**

Saturday had come again and each of the Losers got their pouches refilled with 111 silver coins each as expected. Beverly had just got a vision in her sleep that monsters would attack on Halloween while everyone was outside trick-or-treating after school.

Because of the curfew, no trick-or-treating was allowed at 7 PM or after. Which meant that the monsters would be attacking while the sun was still up, making it easier for the Losers to track them down. They wouldn't need to sneak out while their relatives were asleep or worry about being ambushed in the dark like last time. Plus, every kid in Derry was out trick-or-treating so they had an excuse to be out by that time.

Beverly told them that seven monsters would be attacking that day, which meant that they would have to split up individually to combat the threats.

Bill would take on the werewolf on Witcham Street(where he lives), Richie would take on the vampire on Center Street, Eddie would take on the bloated zombie on Canal Street, Stan would take on the flame monster on Jackson Street, Ben would take on the phantom on Main Street, Beverly would take on the skeleton on West Broadway, and Mike would take on the Frankenstein monster on Kansas Street.

Luckily for them, the police would be patrolling the streets in all of Derry so they wouldn't have to fight alone and that they would escort the panicked civilians away from the streets.

With their plan set in motion, they went back to the store to buy masks to hide their identities before they would fight the monsters this Halloween.

Bill, Richie, Eddie, and Stan chose masks from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles that covered their heads like helmets. Bill chose the Leonardo one, Richie chose the Raphael one, Eddie chose the Michaelangelo one, and Stan chose the Donatello one. Funnily enough, the character masks they chose from the four matched their roles and personalities in some peculiar way.

Both Ben and Beverly wore sparkly Venetian-masquerade masks that only covered the top part of their faces, but they were wearing neon-colored wigs to cover their hair so they were safe.

Mike didn't even need to buy a mask since his scarecrow costume already came with it. It covered his whole head and neck and came with a straw hat.

For the rest of the weekend, they went to their clubhouse to do whatever they did as always. They talked, studied, played games, practiced, and trained throughout. They were exhausted from the duties placed upon them by everyday life and supernatural forces, but they were perfectly happy with the life they had now. They wouldn't have to worry about the callous adults, rotten bullies, or evil monsters ruining their lives as long as they were together in the clubhouse(the only place where they can't find them).


End file.
